Transport

Tom Freeman Carrier and fruiterer

Photograph the Martin Freeman Collection

A carrier is the term used for public transport and a carter was a driver of a horse-drawn vechicle used for transporting goods, often carrying produce from the country into towns on market days. However, when looking at the Trade Directories, the carter and the carrier seem to be much the same thing. In 1827, John Chesterton was the earliest carrier recorded in Kirby Muxloe, with a service to Leicester on Saturdays, returning from the Hare and Pheasant in High Street at 4pm. His son, Edward, is recorded in the 1860's running a service to the King Richard III on Highcross Street on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Edward is also recorded as Parish Clerk in the 1870's. Whites Directory of 1877 records "Carriers from Newbold Verdon and Ratby to Leicester pass through the village on Wednesday and Saturday". These were run by William Cramp, Thomas Freeman and John Wood who would all call at Kirby on route each way. By 1904, Edward Wheatley ran a carrier service to the Hare and Pheasant, a business that was continued by his son Jim in the early 1920's until nationalisation in 1950. It was accepted pratice of the fashionable Leicester shops (before 1939) to arrange delivery of a customer's purchases too the relevant public house in time for the returning carriers' cart or lorry.

Jim Wheatley Carrier

Photo: The Will Walker Collection

Kirby Muxloe Bus Service

Fred Forman moved to Kirby from Ratby with his new wife Eleanor in 1910 and operated a carrier service to the Blue Boar in Southgate Street, Leicester. He had 2 horse and carts to transport goods, and then later purchased a lorry which carried goods in the mornings, but converted into a bus which provided a service to Leicester each morning and afternoon. This lorry had a canvas top and seating for 14 people, and left the village at 10am, calling at the Red Cow and returning at 5 or 6pm. Fred died in 1923, aged only 38, and his son John-known as Jack took over the business. He was only 16. He sold the horses and purchased an 8 seater "Durant" bus which enabled him to run a daily service. In December 1926, he took delivery of a new 26-seater Maudsley saloon bus purchased from the Batchelor Bowles company in Leicester. The press report tells us that the vehicle was "upholstered in red leather and have well-padded squabs". Now with 3 buses it enabled him to extend the service to run up to twenty times a day. The 1928, Kelly's Directory tells us that John Forman had a frequent motor omnibus service each day from Kirby to the Blue Boar. The buses were based at Ivy House on Main Street and were kept in a large wooden shed at the rear of the property, with a petrol pump and storage tank for Pratt's Petroleum in the garden. When Jack decided to sell his buses due to competition from the Midland Red, he moved with his two aunts, Elizabeth Chesterton and her sister, from Ivy House to a newly built bungalow, with shop premises and became a cycle dealer in the war and post war years of the 1940's. The cycle dealership information can be found in the business section. From 1922, Mrs Fisher ran a daily bus service from the Red Cow to Leicester. The service was well known locally, particularly to Saturday night revellers, who were often required to push the bus up the Shoulder of Mutton Hill on the return journey due to it being overloaded. In the 1950's the service ran 7 times a day and the return fare from Kirby Castle to The Newark was one shilling.

Jack Forman's Bus.
Photo: The Will Walker collection

Jim Wheatley Carrier

Photograph The will Walker Collection

Leicester City Police Public Carriage Department January 12th 1928

Photograph: The Will Walker Collection

Kirby Muxloe Station

Photograph Part of the Will Walker Collection

In1849 the Knighton-Desford loop of the railway was completed and a station was built at Blue Potts (the site of a farm and possible ale-house) and opened in 1850. The station was named 'Braunstone' and was used by trains carrying freight. In1858, the Leicester to Burton line was completed and the station was moved slightly to the north and was renamed Kirby Muxloe Station. The station opened for passengers in July 1859. There were several trains each day, travelling to Leicester and back. Until this time, most of the local prosperous business men and their familes lived in Stoneygate, an area close to Leicester centre, because it was easy to reach their factories and offices. However, there was a problem: the area was subject to fog (smog), especially over Victoria Park, and so the business men were looking out for a new area to move to with their families. The ideal place would need to have easy access to the town, but be in a more rural setting with lots of 'fresh air'.

Coincidentally, at around the same time a large number of building plots suddenly became available near to the new station. Until this time there had been only one farmhouse named Kirby Fields, on a very large piece of land on the opposite side of Station Road in the village. The land was sold off in one acre plots and it was snapped up by the Leicester business men looking to build large new houses for their families. The businessmen found the proximity to the station perfect for their needs and so between 1880 and 1910 many large houses were built.

At its height of popularity in around 1907, the train was transporting 28,278 passengers per year. In the final days just before demolition of the station, the train was only carrying just over 1,000 passengers per year.