East Leake (/liːk/) is a large village and civil parish in the Rushcliffe district of Nottinghamshire, England, although its closest town and postal address is Loughborough in Leicestershire. Census data from 2021 shows that the village now has a population of 8,553.[1] The original village was located on the Sheepwash Brook. Kingston Brook also runs through the village. Near the centre of the village is the historic St. Mary's Church,[2] dating back to the 11th century, which Sheepwash Brook flows past, and an old ford, which provided access to the pinfold. The church has six bells.[3]
British Gypsum, a plasterboard manufacturer, has its headquarters in the village.[5] The mining of gypsum locally began from medieval times but modern operations began in 1914,[6] with manufacturing of plasterboard starting in 1917.[7]
Name
The origin of Leake appears to be Laeke (Old Norse – brook or stream), and is consistent with East Leake's position in the heart of the Danelaw, which had various forms over time before becoming "Leake". One of the earliest mentions of East Leake is in the Domesday Book (1086) recorded as "Leche". The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning wet land, since the village lies on the Kingston Brook, a tributary of the River Soar.
History
Settlement in the village's vicinity dates back to at least the Bronze Age; an archaeological survey at a local gravel quarry found evidence of Bronze Age burial grounds and Iron Age constructions.[8]Roman activity in the area is evidenced by a hoard of coins dating back to the reign of Commodus found at the Rushcliffe Halt railway station in the north of the village.[9] The village was founded by Anglo-Saxon settlers at some point during the sixth[10] or seventh centuries[11] and was given the name Lecche, which meant wet or moist land, in reference to the meadows by the Kingston Brook.[12] It is around this time that the Kingdom of Mercia underwent conversion from paganism to Christianity and the first church is thought to have been built in the village; a wooden structure where St Mary's Church stands today.[12][11] Viking activity in the area began during the ninth century and the village was part of the territory ceded to the Danes by Alfred the Great, which later formed the Danelaw.[13] Numerous place names in the area thus have Scandinavian origins.[11]
Distiller and philanthropist John Bley (1674–1731) was born in East Leake and used the profits from his London-based business to fund the construction of a school in the village, which stood on the site of the modern Brookside Primary School. Upon his death, Bley left money to every resident of the village and was buried on the grounds of St Mary's Church, where his tomb still stands.[12][18]
Commercial and industrial activity grew in the village during the nineteenth century, with basket weaving and lace-making providing income for residents.[12]Gypsum mining had been taking place in the area since mediaeval times, and production of plaster began in the village in the 1880s.[12] East Leake later became the headquarters of British Gypsum,[7] which continues to employ residents of the village today.[19]
Demographics
The population of East Leake has grown sharply in recent years due to the expansion of the village. Office for National Statistics census data recorded a population of 6,108 in 2001, 6,337 in 2011 and 8,553 at the most recent census in 2021.[20][1] According to 2021 census data, 96.2% of the village's population are White, above the national figure of 83.0% and the Rushcliffe local authority figure of 89.7%. The village is 1.4% Asian, 0.3% Black, 0.2% of other ethnicities, and 1.8% of the population identified as Mixed.[21] 95.0% of the population were born in the United Kingdom.[22]
41.5% of the village's households are classified as being deprived in at least one of the four census metrics of education, employment, health or housing, compared to an England and Wales figure of 51.7%.[23] 41.2% of the village's adult population have a degree-level qualification (Level 4 or above), compared to 33.8% nationally.[24]
Local amenities
The village is home to four schools, three primary and one secondary. Brookside Primary School has its origins in the John Bley Free School, which was established in 1724.[25] Lantern Lane Primary School and Millside Spencer Academy opened in 1953 and 2022, respectively, accommodating the growth in the village's population.[26][27]East Leake Academy, formerly Harry Carlton Comprehensive School, was established in 1957 and serves East Leake and the surrounding villages.[28] The school was rebuilt in 2002 and shares its location with the village's leisure centre and swimming pool.[29] The academy has been rated "good" by Ofsted[30] and achieved above the national average at GCSE-level in 2024 with a 72% pass rate,[31] compared to 67% in England as a whole.[32]
An East Leake railway station used to exist, on the Great Central Railway. That line was controversially broken up in the Beeching Axe of the 1960s. The stretch from the point where the Great Central crossed the Midland Main Line in Loughborough through East Leake to Ruddington was retained to allow freight trains to travel to British Gypsum's works and to the MoD ordnance depot at Ruddington, but later fell into disuse. More recently this stretch has been re-opened as a heritage line running steam and heritage diesel locos between Ruddington, Rushcliffe Halt (which is located next to the Gypsum works at the northern end of East Leake) and the South Loughborough Junction. In the long term, the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) hope to reinstate a passenger service from East Leake station, although the fact that the area alongside the station has been redeveloped for housing would preclude the provision of public car parking in the area of the station, and would require permission from the Secretary of State.
Geography and ecology
In 2017 European bee-eaters nested at CEMEX quarry, attracting thousands of bird-watchers.[52] The European bee-eater is a colourful bird usually found in southern Europe, and seldom nests in the United Kingdom.
"History of East Leake". east-leake.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2024. "The Domesday Book of 1086 records 38 persons (only those with some sort of land rights and therefore of interest to William 1's taxman were counted, and there were probably twice that number living here)"
"A short history of East Leake". eastleake-history.org.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2024. "Some 38 individuals were recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) making a total population of about 200-220"
Potter, The Rev. Sidney Pell. "A History of East Leake - Chapter II". nottshistory.org.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2024. "The population as enumerated is only thirty-six, but it may be taken for granted that these thirty-six, with the possible exception of the priest, were heads of houses. If the moderate number of five persons to a household be assumed, the actual population was 180."
^"The large official and courtier element in the party precludes the possibility that it was, in any sense, a combination against the king," observes May McKisack The Fourteenth Century (Oxford History of England) 1959:53.
