People
Charnwood is a place of many artists. Come and meet a few of them here. We have an excellent art college as part of
Loughborough University but also the diversity of many self taught artists in the community. These are some of their
year 2000 snapshots.
CHARNWOOD BOROUGH - AN OVERVIEW
A third claimant is "GWERN", an old British name for ALDER, of which there was supposedly once
a profusion here. Whatever the truth, "CHARNWOOD" and "CHARLEY" come from the same root, with the suffix "-LEY"
denoting open land, rather than forest.
CHARNWOOD as a Borough came into being in as a result of a major change in local administration. The LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ACT of 1972 revolutionised the way local councils were organised, with the result that from April 1st 1974, 1,400
existing councils were reduced to 422 new councils plus six metropolitan counties. The old counties, county boroughs,
urban districts and rural districts were replaced by counties and districts operating under separate councils.
County wide issues such as education came under the remit of the new County Councils with more local issues being
dealt with by parish councils as before.
In Leicestershire, twenty administrative districts were replaced by eight new districts plus Rutland. It was then up to
each of the new districts to apply for either city or borough status.
CHARNWOOD DISTRICT became CHARNWOOD BOROUGH and comprised the old BARROW ON SOAR Rural District, SHEPSHED Urban
District and LOUGHBOROUGH Municipal Borough, giving it a population second only to LEICESTER. The New Borough Council
had 58 members all of which, with the exception of LOUGHBOROUGH, were based on existing parishes
The boundaries of the new Borough were almost immediately criticised for their arbitrary nature. They relate to the
boundary changes of pre-1939 and are purely administrative, having no clear physical, social or economic basis.
Unlike many Boroughs created by the 1972 Act, CHARNWOOD is somewhat lopsided with the main urban centres of
LOUGHBOROUGH and SHEPSHED off to one side in the North West. In essence, CHARNWOOD BOROUGH is made up from five
distinct areas.
The urban area around SHEPSHED and LOUGHBOROUGH. The period of greatest development here was in the 18th and 19th centuries with the spread of industrialisation.