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PIGGY'S HOLLOW After the recent cleaning of the site around Piggy's Hollow I thought it might be of interest to give readers the background to this important site.
Piggy's Hollow is immediately behind the St.Denys Churchyard and is adjacent to the arboretum. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the de Greys of Codner had a Manor House there surrounded by a moat. It is thought there would have been a bridge across the moat and the site itself was large enough for barns and an orchard and possibly a gate-house. There was also a medieval deer park, windmill and water mill. The fish ponds are still visible. Leicester Abbey owned land at Stoughton and they built a house and diverted the watercourse so the watermill no longer worked. The de Greys sent four of their men to Leicester Abbey to try to resolve the dispute but they never returned. The village of Ashby Folville had a family with seven brothers who were notorious highwaymen who robbed and murdered. It is thought that the Folville brothers killed the missing men. A generation later the Folville family had gone. Centuries later a man who lived on Church Road kept pigs in the hollow. Local children enjoyed tobogganing down the slopes and he became so annoyed that he plastered the sides with manure! He became known as Piggy Wilson. Diana Courtney |
