Shepshed, United Kingdom

The 11th century Parish church of St Botolph (the westernmost parish church in England to bear the name) and its land the Oakley Wood was originally given to Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror, after the Norman conquest in 1066. The ownership of the estate reverted to the Crown a number of times including in 1534. A wood carving exists in the church depicting a visit of Queen Elizabeth I though it is at present unclear if the Queen ever came to Shepshed itself, but if she did, it would have been the farthest north that she travelled in the country. The older part of the town is still centred on the church.

The church's original patronage came from Leicester Abbey. Between 1699 and 1856, however, the patrons were the Phillips family of Garendon Hall. This family has been Lords of the Manor since its purchase by Sir Ambrose Phillips (1637–1691) in 1683. Garendon Hall (demolished 1964) was built on the site of Garendon Abbey, a prominent Cistercian house which was founded in 1133 by Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester and survived until its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1536. Garendon Abbey, whose economy was largely based on sheep farming, was one of the most important possessor of granges in Leicestershire.

The 18th century saw the enclosure of the common lands around Shepshed. There had been enclosures in the 15th and 16th centuries, but towards the end of the 18th century the last remaining common land, approximately 2,000 acres (8 km2), was enclosed and divided among the principal commoners of the village.

Shepshed experienced an 'earthquake' on 30 September 1750. The vicar of St. Botolph's church at the time, the reverend Thomas Heath, recorded in the parish registers: "Sept 30, 1750, this day (Sunday), while I was administering the Sacrament, between the hours of 12 and 1 o’clock, I and the congregation were very terrible of the shock of an earthquake."

Much destruction was caused in the town when, on 30 June 1753, 85 bays of buildings were destroyed by fire which had happened at what is now known as Hall Croft, named after the school which had been burnt down in the fire.

There were many changes during the 19th century. Shepshed was briefly linked by canal to Loughborough, and to the coalmines of West Leicestershire when the Charnwood Forest Canal was opened in 1798, but success was only short lived. The following year, the dam at Blackbrook Reservoir, to the south of Shepshed, part of the ill-fated canal scheme, collapsed, causing widespread flooding in Shepshed and Loughborough. By 1804 the canal had proved an uneconomic venture and was abandoned, though modern roads and footpaths still follow the course it took through Shepshed. The Charnwood Forest Railway (nicknamed the Bluebell Line on account of the proliferation of the flower) was opened in 1883, but regular passenger services ceased in 1931. However, the goods service did not close until 1963. Shepshed railway station no longer stands though part of the old line forms a bridleway between the town and Thringstone including the now redundant viaduct at Grace Dieu.