Mountsorrel

Granite before the village

The granite quarry announces itself before the village does. Tarmac's operation at Mountsorrel is one of the largest in Europe — three million tonnes of granite a year, blasting at half past twelve on weekdays. You can set your watch by it, though you might not want to.

The village itself sits on the western bank of the River Soar, about four miles south of Loughborough, wedged between the water and the hills of Charnwood Forest. The A6 bypass took the quarry lorries out of the centre in 1991, and the place has been quietly getting on with things ever since.

The village's three pubs

The Swan Inn on Loughborough Road is a good place to start. It's a Grade II listed freehouse dated to 1688, built in brick and Mountsorrel granite with an original timber frame still visible in the rear wing. CAMRA named it Best Village Pub in North Leicestershire in 2007. There's no permanent kitchen — instead, a rotation of pop-up food nights: a pizza van, a Thai kitchen, themed evenings covering Cambodia and Cuba. When food does appear, the homemade beef burgers with potato wedges and the roast chicken breast with sweet potato mash and cider gravy get mentioned repeatedly. Sunday lunches are a regular fixture. In 2023, they launched their own microbrewery in-house — Soar Brew Co — producing beers including Old John Bitter, named after the folly at Bradgate Park. The beer garden overlooks the river.

Down on Sileby Road, The Waterside sits by Mountsorrel Lock on the canal, recently refurbished. The Sorrel Fox, a micropub, rounds out the options. Three pubs for a village this size is a decent showing.

From farmhouse table to circular walk

Then there is John's House. A 16th-century farmhouse on Loughborough Road where chef John Duffin serves food grown on his family's Stonehurst Farm. It holds a Michelin star — Leicestershire's only one. Bookings are essential, well in advance. Both the Swan Inn and John's House are on Loughborough Road.

The best walk from the village is the Mountsorrel and River Soar circular — 2.9 miles, starting from the free car park at Memorial Hall. It takes you past the Butter Market, a market cross built in 1793 to replace a 15th-century one that got relocated to Swithland, then up Castle Hill and out along the Grand Union Canal towpath to Sileby Lock. Castle Hill is where the Normans built a fortification in 1080. It lasted until 1217, when the King's men came down from Nottingham and destroyed it. What's left is a granite crag and a view over the river valley.

Churches and connections

St Peter's Church has been through several identities. It started as a chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist around 1240, was rebuilt in 1440, enlarged in 1795, and only became St Peter's when it went independent in 1869. The tower has battlements and a weathervane. Christ Church, the village's second parish church, also exists, which is more churches than most villages this size need.

For transport, Sileby is the nearest mainline station, and three bus routes connect to Leicester and Loughborough. The canal towpath will take you to either if you prefer to walk.

A village that makes things

The quarry still employs a good portion of the village, as it has since the 1870s when the workforce hit five hundred. Rolls-Royce had a facility here too, making aircraft and automotive fabrications from 1945 until 1994. Mountsorrel has always made things — granite, jet engines, and now, its own bitter.