Whilst enjoying my walks along the river I started to wonder where the Soar comes from.  I know that it joins the Trent near Ratcliffe on Soar (you can see the two rivers converging when on the train to Nottingham).  I know that the Soar flows through Leicester and Watermead on its way to Barrow; but before there?  I put on my explorer’s hat; fought my way through mosquito-infested swamps; cut through thick rain forests and scaled monster-roaming mountains.  OK, I got in my car and drove down the A6.

Starting at Leicester, I watched the Soar flowing under a bridge and thought of the Kind Richard III myth that as he left Leicester (where he had stayed the previous night), his spur struck the side of Bow Bridge, resulting in the prophecy of a wise woman that his head would strike the same spot on his way back into the city.   Slung over horseback, his head hanging from a bruised and battered body, did just that.

From Leicester, the River Soar meanders on between the villages of Littlethorpe, described in 1870, in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, as “a hamlet in Cosby and Narborough parishes” with the manor belonging to a W. Herrick, Esq.  The village is now separated from Narborough by the railway line and the river.  

After Littlethorpe, the river flows through the village of Croft, where local tradition says the stone was quarried by first-century Romans and used in the construction of the Fosse Way.  Croft was first recorded in 836 and the name is thought to have come from the Old English ‘cræft’ meaning a machine (possibly referring to quarrying or a water wheel or mill).  Croft quarry is still working and is sited in the older part of the village.  If you feel inclined, you can walk over scenic Croft Hill to the neighbouring village of Huncote and have a delicious, freshly cooked, made-on-the-premises lunch at the Red Lion on Main Street before taking the footpaths back to Croft (personally recommended!).  

I explored along the river further: past the Mill on the Soar pub, and into Sharnford village which is at the intersection of Roman Watling Street and the Fosse Way and was originally a single village with two manors.  It is recorded in the Domesday Book as Scerneford, possibly coming from the word ‘scearn’, meaning ‘muddy ford’.  This is the first place you can find on maps that refer to the River Soar.  Previous to this, water, known as the Soar Brook, runs across local fields and is joined by Aston Brook and rivulets from Cropston Magna and Clay Brook.  They join together to run under the Leicester Road, as the River Soar.

It seems that the absolute source is still a mystery: Copston Magna in Warwickshire is one contestant but some suggest it is the school pond in Burbage; others confidently say it is Foster’s Pond in Leicester Grange (owned by John Foster in 1780), which is just on the border with Warwickshire.  Geologists have experimented with dyes, but with no success.  I talked with a lady cutting her front lawn in the property bordering Soar Brook and she told me that there are muddy puddles that often come together and feed into the Brook which had recently been widened by Severn Trent in response to flooding.  If you want to follow the trail, you can find the Soar Brook running under Aston Lane in Sharnford.

If you are interested in the river, the history and the geography of its people and land, please do find out more from a super DVD by Brian Langtry: Song of the Soar, The River Soar, Leicestershire’s Best Kept Secret, which is available from www.leglessproductions.co.uk

With thanks to: Brian Langtry, Wikipedia, www.visionofbritain.org.uk, https://storyofleicester.info/a-place-to-live/bow-bridge/ and http://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/hinckleybuildings-l.html for information for this article.

Karisa Krcmar