Mountsorrel, United Kingdom

Mountsorrel castle was used as a bastion against King Stephen, and was subsequently destroyed in 1217 by the King's men from Nottingham, branded "a nest of the Devil and den of thieves and robbers". The future King Louis VIII of France had sent support in the form of 20,000 men to the besieged barons in the castle, but this force had failed to arrive in time to prevent the razing to the ground of the castle. All that remains of the castle today is a granite crag on Castle Hill. The hill is also the site of a memorial (by Shirley Harrison, 1926) to those who lost their lives in World War I.

One of the parish churches is Christ Church and the other, a Grade II* listed building, is dedicated to St Peter.

The village was visited by Methodist preacher John Wesley, where he preached in a building which now belongs to Stonehurst Family Farm, a tourist attraction. By an act of Parliament passed on 22 July 1782 Henry Walkery of Thurmaston and John Sultzer of Burton Overy were empowered to enclose the open fields and common grounds of Mountsorrel, some 300 acres (120 hectares). The Leicester Navigation was opened in 1794 and the first barges between Loughborough and Leicester departed on 26 October.

Mountsorrel was the site for a hospital for the mentally ill, which had 91 beds in 1979, but this has since closed and been converted to a housing estate.

By 1781, the population was recorded as '150 dwellings', and by 1840 the population of Mountsorrel had reached 1,900. During World War II, in 1942, Alvis, an armoured vehicle manufacturer based in Coventry, acquired a factory previously used to produce cardboard boxes in the village after their factory in Coventry was bombed by the Luftwaffe. Alvis built a new factory on the site of an old brickworks, which DeHavilland, an aeroplane propeller manufacturer, briefly used after the war until Rolls-Royce Limited acquired the site in 1945. The site has since closed and is now covered by housing (see below).

The A6 dual-carriageway Quorn-Mountsorrel Bypass opened in October 1991, allowing quarry traffic to avoid travelling through the village centre. On 31 July 2004 a new leisure centre opened in the village, the Soar Valley Leisure Centre. Christ Church & St Peters primary school is on Rothley Road.

The Stonehurst Family Farm and Motor Museum established in 1951 is located in the centre of the village and is home to many animals and offers tractor trailer rides.

The Butter Market was built in 1793 by the Lord of the manor, Sir John Danvers, to replace the fifteenth century Mountsorrel Cross, a market cross which he removed for use as an ornamental garden feature on his estate in Swithland, where it still remains. It is a Grade II* listed structure.

The Adam Style building opposite St Peter's Church and actually on the Leicester to Loughborough road, was built in 1783 for Ralph Tebbutt, whose monument is in St Peter's Church. Formerly known as Mountsorrel Hall it was a vicarage until 1983.

A copy of this building was erected in 1790 in Liverpool, and in that house the politician and former Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) was born.