Higham on the Hill
Encyclopedia
Higham on the Hill is a village and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Hinckley and Bosworth
Hinckley and Bosworth
Hinckley and Bosworth is a local government district with borough status in south-western Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Its only towns are Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth...

 district of Leicestershire
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...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Geography

The village is about three miles away from both Hinckley
Hinckley
Hinckley is a town in southwest Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 43,246 . It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council...

 and Nuneaton
Nuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...

. The parish (and the boundary between the East and West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...

) is bounded by Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

 and the A5 to the south-west. The Ashby Canal passes through the east of the parish, and the parish boundary runs along it near Stoke Golding
Stoke Golding
Stoke Golding is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, which lies in the heart of England, in South West Leicestershire, close to the Warwickshire county border. According to the 2001 census the total population was 1,721, living in just over...

.

Geographical centre of England

The geographical centre of England
Centre points of the United Kingdom
There has long been debate over the exact location of the geographical centre of the United Kingdom, and its constituent countries, due to the complexity and method of the calculation, such as whether to include offshore islands, and the fact that erosion will cause the position to change over time...

 as defined by the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

 lies within the parish at latitude 52°33'N, longitude 01°27'W, just north of Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...

.

History

Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Fisher
Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Baron Fisher of Lambeth, GCVO, PC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.-Background:...

, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury from 1944 to 1961, was born in the village in 1887 and lived in the rectory. The parish church is dedicated to St Peter.

The village has two pubs: The Fox Inn and the Oddfellows, which lie at the heart of the local community. They also serve as a welcome respite for the many walkers, cyclists, canal boaters and motorists that find their way to the village, providing home cooked food, real ales and friendly company. Higham Green College lies to the south-east.

The automotive research institute MIRA Ltd
Motor Industry Research Association
MIRA Ltd, formerly known as the Motor Industry Research Association, is a limited company based near Nuneaton in Hinckley and Bosworth, Leicestershire in the United Kingdom, which provides product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the automotive...

 is based in the parish, opening the proving ground
Proving ground
A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented or tested, or where military tactics are tested...

 on 22 May 1954, situated on the former RAF Lindley. RAF Lindley was named after the former Lindley Hall which was knocked down in 1925. The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway
The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway was a pre-grouping railway company in the English Midlands. It was jointly owned by the Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway and linked Nuneaton and Coalville....

 used to pass through the parish, with a train station for the village, and is now the Weddington Country Walk.

External links

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