Hinckley a town of ancient lineage set in the heart of England

There has been human occupation of this part of England since Neolithic times. The town is Saxon in origin, being the clearing in the wood, (leah) where the Saxon leader Hynca made his camp, hence Hinckley. The Romans settled hereabouts as evidenced by the remains of farms and villas and the bust of a Roman boy found in fields in the town. The town sits close to the centre of Roman Britain where the Fosse Way and the Watling Street intersect. Both remain into modern times.

Mentioned in the Domesday Book the town had a certain garrison air about it for there was a wooden castle atop a high mound in its centre. It became a market town of some reputation, for William Shakespeare, the noble bard, wrote in Henry IV part Two:

And Sir, do you mean to stop William's wages for the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley Fair?

Another luminary of the Tudor world, Sir Walter Raleigh, had kinsfolk in the area. The town is of course a few miles from the site of the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 where the first Tudor, Henry VII, defeated King Richard III.

It was in 1640 that William Iliffe of Hinckley reintroduced the stocking frame to the country and thus Hinckley has the soubriquet of cradle and home of the hosiery industry. Hinckley was also the cradle for one of the great Post Reformation religious revivals as being the place where the Dominican order re-established itself in England in 1765, when Father Matthew Thomas Norton came to Hinckley.

The town has been the birthplace of a number of people who went on to great achievements. For instance, the Brooks cycle saddle, famous the world over, came from a Hinckley family. William Butler, founder of the brewery, Mitchells and Butler, was born in the town. Myra Merrick, the first woman GP in the USA and physician to the Rockefeller family originated from Hinckley. Another woman of fortitude was the internationally popular Victorian novelist, Charlotte Mary Brame, who was born, worked and died in the town. Akin to hosiery, perhaps the most famous Hinckley export was the Hansom Cab, invented by Joseph Hansom, whilst living in Hinckley. It is the one image of Victorian times that is recognisable the world over and plied its trade in the major cities and capitals of the world. The emphasis on enterprise was enhanced with the creation of a Technical College in the town in 1931.

During the Second World War, the town hosted troops of the American 82nd Airborne Division it was the day that baseball, the jitterbug, nylon stockings and chewing gum came to Hinckley!

Hinckley is a modern town with its own theatre, museum, well-appointed golf course and new football stadium. The local hosiery industry has been replaced with other industries and Hinckley is home to the Triumph Motorcycle factory. The local school, John Cleveland College has provided the springboard for entry into higher education for a whole generation of young people in the town and in sporting excellence has produced sports men and women who have represented their country at the highest levels.

Against this backcloth of rich tapestry, the Rotary Club of Hinckley was founded in 1926, the fifth oldest in the District. Rotarians have been prominent townspeople and in 1937 it was the Rotary Club that gave the town the open space of Burbage woods for the perpetual pleasure of future generations. The Club continues to support both local and international causes and to take an interest in the development of the ethos of Service above Self in the younger people of the town.