Launde is a civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, bordering Rutland. The parish is the site of Launde Abbey. It gives its name to an electoral division of Leicestershire that stretches all the way from Scraptoft, Thurnby and Stoughton, near Leicester, to the border with Rutland. The civil parish population is included in the civil parish of Loddington.
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government, they are a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of ecclesiastical parishes which historically played a role in both civil and ecclesiastical administration; civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. The unit was devised and rolled out across England in the 1860s.
Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering 230 square miles (600 km2), the district is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the county.
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, Staffordshire to the west, and Derbyshire to the north-west. The border with most of Warwickshire is Watling Street.
Launde Park lies in the valley of the River Chater. The Elizabethan house embodies the relics of the old priory and is an E-shaped building of two storeys. The private chapel is from the Perpendicular period and contains some good stained glass. There are numerous memorials of the Simpson family who bought Launde in 1763 and enlarged the house and laid out the plantations. The estate was later owned by the Dawson family. [1]
The River Chater is a river in the East Midlands of England. It is a tributary of the River Welland, and is about 12 miles (19 km) long.
Launde Woods is a nature reserve managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and part of it is Launde Big Wood, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Launde Woods is a 99 hectares nature reserve north of Launde in Leicestershire. It is owned by the Leicester Diocesan Board of Finance and leased to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. The site is in two areas, Launde Big Wood, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and Launde Park Wood.
The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust (LRWT) is one of 47 wildlife trusts across the United Kingdom. It manages nature reserves in Leicestershire and Rutland, and was founded in 1956 as the Leicestershire and Rutland Trust for Nature Conservation. As of January 2018, it has over 16,000 members, a staff of about 25 and more than 500 volunteers. It is based in Leicester, and is managed by a Council of Trustees which is elected by the members. It is a charity which covers all aspects of nature conservation, and works to protect wild places and wildlife.
Launde Big Wood is a 41.1 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Leicester. It is part of Launde Woods nature reserve, which is owned by the Leicester Diocesan Board of Finance and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.
