The name 'Aylestone' comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'Aegel's settlement' or 'Egil's settlement'. Aylestone was recorded in the
Domesday Book as
Ailstone, held in the reign of
Edward the Confessor by Alveva, Countess of Mercia. In 1086 it was held by
Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. The manor passed from Robert to his son
Robert le Bossu, thence to Bossu's son
Robert Blanchemains and finally to Blanchemains' son,
Robert FitzPernel. FitzPernel died without issue, and his estates were divided between his two sisters, the manor of Aylestone passing to Margaret, who married
Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester. On the death of Fulke de Pembrugge IV in 1409, the manor passed to his wife Isabel. Fulke and Isabel having no issue, the manor eventually passed to the grandson of Fulk's sister Juliana, Richard Vernon III. Aylestone remained in the hands of the
Vernon family until the death of
Sir George Vernon in 1565. His daughter
Dorothy having married John Manners, second son of the
1st Earl of Rutland, Aylestone passed to the Manners family, who later became the
Dukes of Rutland. The estate was sold by the
6th Duke of Rutland, the sale being held at the
Temperance Hall in
Leicester on 26 June 1869. The
Leicester Extension Act 1891 (
54 & 55 Vict. c. c) incorporated Aylestone into the Borough of Leicester. The village had at this time an area of 1,723 acres. On 26 March 1896 the civil parish was abolished and merged with Leicester. Aylestone's
open fields were
enclosed in 1766. about this time Aylestone was the chosen route into Leicester Town for the supply of coal from the areas around Bagworth, Desford and Swannington which was carried in by Packhorse "trains" who crossed, on the Aylestone
packhorse bridge, the (sometimes swampy) flood plain area now known as
Aylestone Meadows. During the
English Civil War/War of Three Kingdoms
King Charles I of England and
Prince Rupert used Aylestone Hall as their headquarters during the siege and storming of Parliamentarian Leicester Town by the main
Royalist field army on 30 and 31 May 1645. Aylestone Hall was occupied by a ladies'
boarding school in 1846. When the estate was sold in 1869 the hall was occupied by a tenant, Nathaniel Stone, who purchased it. From 1871 to 1938 the hall was occupied by the Stretton family. It was requisitioned by the army during
World War II. In 1950 Leicester City Council purchased it, and after renovation the hall and the grounds were opened in 1954 as a public park, with a restaurant and a clubhouse for the local bowling club. Aylestone Hall was renovated again in 2003, and converted into three separate dwellings and a clubhouse. It had been assumed that much of the hall's medieval fabric had been destroyed when alterations were made in 1850. A 15th-century
packhorse bridge at the west end of Marsden Lane crosses the
River Soar on eleven arches. Aylestone Park is an area of housing approximately a mile square, which grew between
Leicester and Aylestone village and which has housing generally built since 1875. Aylestone Meadows is a large area of
playing fields and
water-meadow nearby, and contributes to the semi-rural character of the suburb. In 2003 they were designated a
Local Nature Reserve. Plans by
Leicester City Council to bulldoze an area within the Aylestone Meadows to make way for an artificial sports pitch, single storey clubhouse and car park, were defeated on 21 March 2011 when the Planning Committee rejected the plans. Many groups including the Aylestone Meadows Appreciation Society, Leicester Friends of the Earth, Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust, the Leicester Civic Society, and the
Campaign for Rural England, all helped rally support against the plans. It was the first time that an
E-Petition on Leicester City Council's website had ever been used.
Demography In 2001, the ward of Aylestone had a population of 10,801.
Culture and community The Aylestone Boathouse, a large wooden building, was built c. 1911 by Gordon Biggs on the site of a canal wharf close to Middleton Street. Rollers were installed by the side of King's Lock to allow boats to be transferred to the River Soar from the canal. Later a brick-built ballroom and restaurant, and tennis courts, were added. The building was used as an engineering works during World War II. The boathouse was demolished c.1980. The ballroom became a
bingo hall, and was eventually demolished and replaced by housing. ==Transport==