Melton Mowbray

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Melton Mowbray

Statistics

Population:

25,554

Ordnance Survey

Administration

Other

Services

Leicestershire Constabulary

Fire and rescue:

{{{Fire}}}

Ambulance:

East Midlands

Post office and telephone

Post town:

MELTON MOWBRAY

Postal district:

LE13

Dialling code:

01664

Politics

St.Mary's church

Melton Mowbray or just Melton (as it is commonly known to its inhabitants) is a town of around 26,000 people in the borough of Melton north-east Leicestershire, England, 15 miles from Leicester and 105 miles north of London. The town is on the River Eye/River Wreake and is served by Melton Mowbray railway station.

Melton Mowbray is best known for being the home of the Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are filled with large chunks of pork, glistening in rich pork jelly, and encased in a freestanding, crisp, golden pastry crust.

In addition to its culinary fame for pork pies, Stilton cheese originated near Melton Mowbray, and is still made in the town today. Stilton cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, 80 miles north of London, where it was marketed to travellers on the Great North Road, though no Stilton was ever made there.

The round corner of a blue Stilton cheese, made in the traditional cylindrical shape.

The town is also home to Melton cloth (first mentioned in 1823), which is the familiar tight-woven woollen cloth which is heavily milled, and a nap raised so as to form a short, dense, non-lustrous pile. Sailors' peacoats are traditionally made of Melton cloth, the universal workmans' donkey jackets of Britain and Ireland and in North America, loggers' "cruising jackets" and Mackinaws.

The phrase painting the town red is said to have originated in Melton back in 1837. At the time Melton Mowbray was home to a highly fashionable fox hunting scene. Out celebrating a successful hunt, the Marquess of Waterford and his hunting party found several tins of red paint which they daubed liberally on to the buildings of the High Street, some traces of which can still be seen on doors of older buildings in the town.

Melton Mowbray has been a market town for over 1,000 years. Recorded as Leicestershire's only market in the 1086 Domesday Survey, it is the third oldest market in England. Tuesday has been market day ever since royal approval was given in 1324.

Melton Mowbray is home to a rare example of early town government. The Melton Mowbray Town Estate was founded at the time of the reformation, in 1549, when two townsfolk sold gold sequestered from the church and bought land to be held in trust for all inhabitants. The Town Estate provided early forms of education, the first street lighting, and today owns and operates the town's parks and sportsgrounds, and the town's market.

In 1964, the Production Engineering Research Association of Great Britain (PERA) came to the town on Nottingham Road and employed around four hundred people in supporting research and development in industry. It is also home to the East Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service. In 2000, the East Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA) was based in a building also on Nottingham Road. Petfoods came to the town in 1951 as Chappie Ltd, employing over two thousand people, and now employs around one thousand. It became Petfoods in 1957, and became Masterfoods in January 2002. At Melton, it makes four million items of petfood every day, which is less than it used to. Masterfoods now have their UK headquarters close to Melton at Waltham-on-the-Wolds.

Melton shares a Member of Parliament (currently Alan Duncan from the Conservatives) with Rutland.

Its museum famously displays a dead two-headed calf.

Melton's largest school is King Edward VII with around 2,000 pupils, aged between 11 and 19. The school was founded in 1908. King Edward VII Upper School, also boasts the first school-based Eco-Centre and a large computer-based learning centre (ILIAD).

The name Melton comes from the early English word Middletune (middle town - same origin as places called Milton and Middleton). Mowbray is a Norman family name - the name of early Lords of the Manor.

Melton's St. Mary's Church is the largest and "stateliest" Parish Church in Leicestershire, dating from the 13th century. Sir Malcolm Sargent was a former organist of this church.

There is also a Melton Mowbray in Tasmania, Australia, as well as a Melton in Victoria, Australia.