15 Facts About Hinckley

Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough.

Hinckley is about halfway between Leicester and Coventry and borders Nuneaton in Warwickshire.

Hinckley was included in part of the Nuneaton Urban Area but was removed last time a population estimate was taken.

Hinckley has a recorded history going back to Anglo-Saxon times; the name Hinckley is Anglo-Saxon: "Hinck" is a personal name and "ley" is a meadow.

Parsons with parliamentary leanings like Thomas Cleveland, the vicar of Hinckley, suffered sequestration by the Leicester County Committee, like some of his "malignant" neighbours accused of visiting royalist garrisons or preaching against Parliament.

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Colonel Grey with 120 foot-soldiers and 30 troopers from Bagworth House rushed to Hinckley and retook the town, routed the Royalists, rescued the cattle and released their imprisoned countrymen.

At the time of the first national census in 1801, Hinckley had a population of 5,158: twenty years later it had increased by about a thousand.

Hinckley became an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894, covering the ancient parish of Hinckley.

The first framework knitting machine was brought here by Joseph Iliffe in the 17th century and by the 19th century Hinckley was responsible for a large proportion of Britain's hosiery production.

Hinckley has housed the Triumph Motorcycles Ltd facility since 1990.

Hinckley is home to a well-established creative and technology community with designers, illustrators, artists and photographers taking up residence in the town, particularly in converted buildings such as the renovated Atkins Building and Graphic House on Druid Street, a former factory converted to modern office and studio use.

Hollycroft Park, in the centre of Hinckley, contains two tennis courts, a golf pitch'n'putt and a lawn bowls green with pavilion.

Hinckley is mentioned in the Monty Python sketch "Olympic Hide and Seek Final" as the home town of one of the competitors.

Hinckley was known to its residents for many years as "Tin 'At".

Hinckley is twinned with Le Grand-Quevilly, France, and joined with Herford, Germany in the early 1970s.