Barrow upon Soar
Encyclopedia
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, in the Soar Valley
Soar Valley
The Soar Valley in Leicestershire, England is the basin of the River Soar, which rises south of Leicester and flows north through Charnwood before meeting the River Trent at Trent Lock on the Nottinghamshire border....
between Leicester and Loughborough. It has a population of around 5,000 and is part of the Charnwood
Charnwood (borough)
Charnwood is a borough of northern Leicestershire, England. It is named after Charnwood Forest, which it contains. Loughborough is the largest town in the district and serves as the borough's administrative and commercial centre.-History:...
local government district.
It lies, as its name indicates, on the east bank of River Soar
River Soar
The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands.-Description:It rises near Hinckley in Leicestershire and is joined by the River Sence near Enderby before flowing through Leicester , Barrow-on-Soar, beside Loughborough and Kegworth, before joining the Trent near...
(At the point where the Fishpool Brook joins it), and is just opposite the A6 from Quorn. The village is on the Midland Main Line
Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway route in the United Kingdom, part of the British railway system.The present-day line links London St...
, and Ivanhoe Line trains stop at the Barrow-upon-Soar railway station
Barrow-upon-Soar railway station
Barrow-upon-Soar railway station serves the large village of Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire, England. The station is located on the Midland Main Line between Leicester and Loughborough....
. The Mountsorrel Railway
Mountsorrel Railway
The Mountsorrel Railway was a network of industrial railway lines that served the granite quarries which dominate the Leicestershire village of Mountsorrel.- History :...
, carrying granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
from the Mountsorrel
Mountsorrel
Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire on the River Soar, just south of Loughborough with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants.-Geography:...
quarries
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
, used to run here; the line from Mountsorrel is still followed by a mineral conveyor to Barrow, where quarry rock is sorted for distribution.
The village is famous for a plesiosaur
Plesiosaur
Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...
excavated there in 1851, of the species Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus, nicknamed the 'Barrow Kipper'. The dinosaur was found in a lime pit outside of the village, and a roundabout with a sign representing its skeleton lies at the centre of the village. The actual bones are on display at the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery on New Walk in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
.
Twinning
Barrow Upon Soar is twinned with MaransMarans, Charente-Maritime
Marans is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Poitou-Charentes region in southwestern France.It is connected to La Rochelle by the Canal de Marans à la Rochelle...
in France, as is displayed on signs when exiting and entering the village via road travel.