Rothley Soke, Leicesterhire : Landscape and people

In the spring of 2007, archaeologists excavating in a field next to the church of St Mary and St John in Rothley discovered a grave site containing the remains of 298 burials. The earliest of these burials has been dated to the late-seventh or early-eighth century. Prior to this, a study of Rothley Soke, which included an examination of Rothley and its dependent villages in the medieval period, was undertaken by Dr McLoughlin in the Department of English Local History, at the University of Leicester, as her PhD thesis. This book is drawn from that thesis, and incorporates Dr McLoughlin's further thoughts and conclusions regarding the Anglo-Saxon burial site. Rothley manor, soke and parish formed a large and complex landscape in north and north-eastern Leicestershire in the later medieval period. As a royal soke at Domesday, Rothley had connections with the king, and with its superior lords the Knights Templar and subsequently the Knights Hospitaller. The real interest, however, lies in the ability of the ordinary people of Rothley and its soke to have an influence on the formation of their landscape. Furthermore, the people of Rothley and its soke villages resisted their overlords and gained some control over their own lives through corporate effort, and by gaining access to legal resources and education. This book sets out to reveal something of this landscape and the people who lived, worked and died here in the medieval period.