Old Aylestone (A Guided Walk in Leicester)
"Old Aylestone" is a particularly popular Guided Walk, and is devised and led by Blue Badge Guide Colin Crosby, of Colin Crosby Heritage Tours.
These strolls are a most enjoyable way of soaking up some Local History.
Aylestone is one of six former villages which are now suburbs of Leicester, but where a careful look will reveal aspects of their village origins. The others are Belgrave, Humberstone, Evington, Knighton and Braunstone.
The walk starts outside St. Andrews Church, Aylestone in Middleton Street, a couple of minutes' walk from the shops in Aylestone Road.
St. Andrew's is a mediaeval church, as are the parish churches of all the former villages within the City of Leicester.
The route of the walk goes along the river and the canal towpath, before cutting across to view the mysterious River Biam, a little known river which is a tributary of the River Soar.
The route then continues along the Great Central Way, on the line of the Great Central Railway, constructed in the 1890s and mostly dismantled in the 1960s under the then Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples.
Towards the end of the walk is one of the oldest structures in Leicester - the Aylestone Packhorse Bridge, constructed for packhorse trains to carry coal from the West Leicestershire coalfield, in the area that we now know as Coalville.
Dates, costs and where to meet
A place on 'Old Aylestone' costs £5.00 per person, or £4.00 if paying in advance. The guided walk begins at St. Andrews Church, Aylestone, and is running on:
I'm sorry, but there are no plans to run this event at present.
If you would like to book a place on one of these dates, please telephone Colin on (0116) 2611576 or email him at colin@crosbyheritage.co.uk.