As the biggest employer in the village the Mountsorrel Granite Company lost many men on mobilisation. Most of the Quarrymen served at first with the infantry but as the need for specialist trades grew during the war many were transferred to the Royal Engineers and served with the RE Quarry units is France.
The declaration of war and the mobilisation of many men from the village caused an understandable upheaval and uncertainty for many. The establishment of various committees helped to bring a sense of order and help those families affected.
Prior to the outbreak of war Mountsorrel men had been serving as volunteers with both the Leicestershire Regiment as Territorial soldiers and with the Leicestershire Yeomanry. With war declared they moved to their war stations.
On the declaration of War men who were Regular Reservists or were serving with the Territorials or Yeomanry were mobilised. A little while later a list of those gone from the village was produced, probably by the village’s Emergency Committee.
This coming weekend (26th – 28th January 2019) is time for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch and as with previous years we plan to do a mini version for Mountsorrel. If you’d like to take part email your results for Mountsorrel bird sighting’s to us using our contact page and we will put together a Top 10 for Mountsorrel – do send your results to the RSPB as well though! All you need to do is find a suitable spot to watch the birds in your garden for an hour over the weekend (from indoors with a cup of tea at hand is good). Get yourself comfortable and record the birds, remember though that we need the highest number of each sort at any one time not the total seen during the hour.
In 1900 a new army reserve unit was formed in Mountsorrel, P Company of 1st Volunteer Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. The unit was made up of volunteers from Mountsorrel and the other Soar Valley villages. Read on 2016 03 18 P Company 1st Volunteer Battalion Leicestershire Regiment 1900 1908
The MHG WW1 Studies Team have recently updated the WW1 Casualty List for the village to include all the casualties who were born in or lived in the village at the time of the Great War.
2017 05 01 Mountsorrel World War 1 Casualties updated 1 May 2017
MHG are once again running a village Garden Birdwatch to coincide with the RSPB’s national Big Garden Bird Watch over the last weekend of January. We make no claims for ours being as scientific as that run by the RSPB but it does provide a snapshot of what birds we have visiting our village gardens. To take part please either use our form MHG GARDEN BIRDWATCH 2017 Record sheet or simply use our contact form below to return your results. We will publish the results in the spring. We also encourage you all to also take part in the RSPB’s event details of which are at https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/
MHG have recently completed the annual scything and hay raking of the wildflower meadow that we have developed at the foot of the Navins adjacent to Christ Church churchyard. The meadow, now in its 10th year, continues to develop and improve. Read more…..2016-09-30-mhg-wildflower-meadow-2016
The village North End flood plain fields, bounded to the north by the river, have been much affected by the A6 and Granite Way but still have great wildlife and amenity value. Read more…2016 08 21 Mountsorrel Wildlife Sites 2016 – North End
