Tourist's guide to visit Humberstone & Hamilton

Visit Humberstone & Hamilton – things to do & explore

Overview of Humberstone & Hamilton history & facts by Walkfo

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Planning a visit to Humberstone & Hamilton?

Humberstone and Hamilton is an electoral ward and administrative division of the City of Leicester, England. It comprises the north-eastern Leicester suburbs of Humberstone, Humberstone Garden City, Hamilton and Netherhall.

Humberstone & Hamilton history

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Name

The ward takes its name from the historical village of Humberstone and the modern housing estate of Hamilton. The place-name ‘Humberstone’ is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ‘Humerstane’. The name means ‘Hunbeorht’s stone’. The “Humber stone” is a granite monolith of unknown (perhaps glacial) origin that lies in a field in Hamilton. Until 1750 it had been fully exposed, but was then truncated and the remainder buried by a farmer. In the 1980s it was partially uncovered and made accessible to the public. It was then fenced in when the Leicester north ring road was built and had a sign erected at the site, describing the stone’s history. Hamilton was named after a deserted medieval village in the civil parish of Barkby Thorpe, just outside the Leicester city boundary. The name is being revived for new developments on the A563 road, east of Rushey Mead.

Medieval and later history

The village of Humberstone has been inhabited for many centuries. Part of the wall around the local St Mary’s church is an original cob wall. There is also a thatched cruck cottage dating from a similar time. The oldest parts of the church are the tower and the walls of the chancel,which are medieval. The chancel windows are nineteenth century. The rest of the church was rebuilt in 1857-8 to the designs of Raphael Brandon. Inside he used locally obtained Humberstone alabaster for the carved capitals of the pillars in the nave and other details. The church contains a slab with a picture of a knight incised on it. This was from the tomb of Richard Hotoft who died in 1451. Most of the houses in Humberstone were built in the 1920s on land that used to be part of the estate of Humberstone Hall. Some of the gardens in the area bear testament to this as they still have parts of the century-old orchard trees in them. Humberstone was annexed to the city in 1935. In the late 1980s and early 1990s several private gardens were sold to property developers, but a combination of local hostility and a crash in the property market resulted in the land becoming disused. It has since been taken over by the council and converted into a public garden.

Humberstone Garden development

The development of Humberstone Garden was based on the principles of the Garden city movement. Garden suburbs modified the principles of garden cities to allow for residential “garden suburbs” without the commercial and industrial components of the garden city. They were built on the outskirts of cities, in rural settings such as Humberstone. The Humberstone Garden Suburb is notable because it is the only example in which a UK workers cooperative has created a housing cooperative and built a housing estate for its members. The Anchor Tenants Housing Association was formed in 1887 by the workers cooperative of the Anchor Boot and Shoe Co-operative Society which was a cooperatively run boot and shoe works in Asfordby Street, Leicester. The members of the cooperative contributed a percentage of their wages and bought a plot of land just outside Leicester by the village of Humberstone and built 97 houses. The first houses were in use by 1908 and the Anchor employees were let houses by the association at a rent that was collected to cover the upkeep of the properties. The original houses were designed by George Hern in a roughcast cottage style at a density of seven to eight houses an acre. The suburb consists of houses in Lilac Avenue, Laburnum Road, Fern Rise, Chestnut Avenue and a part of Keyham Lane. The names of the new streets were chosen to emphasise the garden nature of the scheme.

Humberstone & Hamilton geography / climate

Humberstone and Hamilton is bordered by the wards of Rushey Mead to the north, Charnwood to the east and Coleman and Thurncourt to the south. The ward borders the county of Leicestershire; in particular, the borough of Charnwood to the north and the district of Harborough to the east. The ward comprises the suburb of Humberstone in the west, Netherhall in the southeast and Hamilton to the northeast (which makes Hamilton the most northeasterly suburb of Leicester).

You can visit Humberstone & Hamilton, COUNTY/BOROUGH & use Walkfo to discover the best walking places with our free digital tour guide app created especially for Humberstone & Hamilton. Walkfo Humberstone & Hamilton has 300 locations with history, culture & travel facts, that you can explore the same way you can a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Humberstone & Hamilton, being in the moment, without digital distraction and no limitations to a specific walking route – you choose where you want to go, when you want to go and Walkfo Humberstone & Hamilton will keep up.

When you visit Humberstone & Hamilton

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When you visit Humberstone & Hamilton, Walkfo is your digital tour guide while exploring by foot, bike or bus. With numerous walks, hikes, tourist locations & travel destinations available in Humberstone & Hamilton, our travel AI guide helps you get the best from your visit to Humberstone & Hamilton & the surrounding areas. Our explore Humberstone & Hamilton app for iPhone & Android, allows you to experience the hidden history, culture and amazing facts throughout Humberstone & Hamilton whilst out walking. The digital tour guide creates interactive audio stories driven by where you walk, so you can exploration Humberstone & Hamilton’s National Heritage sites, tourist attractions, historic locations or city streets freely, without the restrictions of a predefined walk & walk map.

“The Walkfo AI has curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 0 audio facts in Humberstone & Hamilton alone that form an interactive Humberstone & Hamilton walking map for you to explore.”

Best Humberstone & Hamilton places to visit

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Humberstone & Hamilton has hundreds of places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are five of Humberstone & Hamilton’s best destinations to visit when exploring the area. We have condensed the information with much more detail available within Walkfo when you visit the destinations.

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Visit Humberstone & Hamilton plaques

Experience Humberstone & Hamilton audio walks & tours

Visiting Humberstone & Hamilton with Walkfo’s things to do interactive map
The “Humberstone & Hamilton things to do map” below is a preview of the places you can visit in Humberstone & Hamilton and surrounding areas with our digital audio tour guide app. Each spot has content for a plaque, a building, a street or general area, providing history, culture or tourism information the you can explore.

Interactive ‘Explore Humberstone & Hamilton Map’     This Humberstone & Hamilton tourism map shows points of interest within a 4km radius of Humberstone & Hamilton centre

Walkfo App     Walkfo

Walkfo is free to download & use (for a limited time period), so if you are looking to explore Humberstone & Hamilton, go to your App Store to search for “Walkfo” or follow a links below and install on your mobile phone. Walkfo is designed for use with headphones or AirPods, so you can walk & explore whilst learning about the things around you without digital distraction.

  Apple App Store

  Google Play Store

Things to do & visit in Humberstone & Hamilton and surrounding areas

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Getting to / around Humberstone & Hamilton – transport links, stations, streets & traffic map

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Getting around in Humberstone & Hamilton using public transportation may include roads, streets, trains, undergrounds, buses or trams. Walkfo has the following important Humberstone & Hamilton public transport locations with historic / cultural / factual content when you visit:

Humberstone & Hamilton Notable Public Transport Stations		Humberstone & Hamilton Notable Streets & Roads

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Attention local Humberstone & Hamilton historians, tour guides & Humberstone & Hamilton tourism agents