FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT MELTON & THE SURROUNDING AREA.
The famous Pork Pie shop of Dickinson and Morris Ltd, with the Half Moon beyond. Find out more about Melton pork pies at www.porkpie.co.uk
To find out more about Melton and what is happening in the local area, go to www.meltononline.co.uk
WHY 'PAINT THE TOWN RED'?
Our website is named 'Paint the town red' after one of the best known events in the history of Melton Mowbray. On the evening of Thursday 6th April 1837, following a day at the local Croxton Park races, the Marquess of Waterford and his friends rather overdid the celbrations! At around three in the morning, they were making their way home by carriage when they found Thorpe End toll gate closed.
Some repair work was under way at the time, and this involved a quantity of red paint, to which the revellers helped themselves, along with ladders and brushes. They proceeded along Sherrard Street, painting anything that took their fancy, until they reached the market place. Here, someone had the bright idea of painting the carved stone swan on the Swan Inn......the town had truly been painted red!
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The Swan ceased to be an Inn around 1850, but the sign of the Swan remains to this day...........the Inn was mentioned in papers written during the Civil war in 1641.
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MELTON MOWBRAY, THE 'QUEEN OF THE SHIRES'.
Melton Mowbray has its origins in Saxon times, when 'Medel Tun', or Middle Town, was the market for the villages in the Wreake valley and parts of the Vale of Belvoir. The 'Mowbray' was added in Norman times when the Lord of the Manor from 1129AD was Roger de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland.
The town thrived as a market, and gained a castle on the site of the present King Street. The Melton market is the only one in the county to have been mentioned in the Domesday book, and it is thought to date back to the days of Edward the Confessor which would make it one of the longest lived continuously held markets in the country.........as far back as records go, it has always been on a Tuesday.
The Tourist Information building in King Street originated as a fortified Manor House in 1330; only the Church is older. The 'Anne of Cleves' was built in 1384.
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THE HARBOROUGH HOTEL
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In the civil war, the town was occupied by Parliamentary forces, and a battle took place in 1645 at Ankle Hill when a Royalist force inflicted serious losses on the Roundheads.
During the early nineteenth century the town became an important centre for hunting, and many large houses were built as hunting boxes. The Harborough dates from this time, as do many of the humbler pubs, but the 'George' has parts dating back to the mid 1700's.
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THE GEORGE HOTEL, JUST OFF THE MARKET PLACE.
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The famous Pork Pies became widely known because they were used as a convenient portable lunch by the Huntsmen, though of course they had been made for centuries before then. It was only in the 19th century that they were made on an industrial scale, and the coming of the railway to Melton in 1845 enabled them to be sold far and wide.
The other local delicacy is the Stilton Cheese, originally sold at a coaching inn at the village of Stilton on the Great North Road, hence the name.........they can be sold anywhere, but a true Stilton can only be made around Melton Mowbray.
Nowadays, Melton is also widely known for the manufacture of petfood, but that goes down less well with a pint than a pork pie and a slice of Stilton!
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THE MARKET SQUARE
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Melton has it's share of closed pubs; this is the old 'Three Tuns' on King Street........thanks to John Athey for these two photo's.
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