Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Wigston Magna

Wigston Magna is a busy town to the South of Leicester.

The “Magna” part means “Great”. There is a Wigston Parva, meaning Little Wigston, but this is some miles away near Watling Street on the Warwickshire border.

Wigston Magna, usually known simply as Wigston, was known throughout the Middle Ages as “Wigston Two Steeples”. This is because it has, unusually, two mediaeval churches, All Saints and St. Wistans.

St. Wistans is one of the places where the body of this saint rested on its way to burial, initially at Repton and later at Evesham. A Mercian prince, he was assassinated at nearby Wistow and soon regarded as a martyr.

In the Middle Ages Wigston Magna was the largest town in Leicestershire apart from Leicester itself.

Two people who formerly lived in the town were George Davenport, a notorious highwayman, and Abigail Herrick, mother of Jonathan Swift, the author of “Gulliver’s Travels”.

Today, the County Record Office is housed in a former school, and there is also a Framework Knitting Museum.

A complex of footpaths in the town centre seems to be the remnants of a mediaeval street system.

Blue Badge Guide Colin Crosby is available to lead Guided Walks around Wigston Magna for groups.