Stays near Burbage, Leicestershire

Burbage is a large village and civil parish in the borough of Hinckley and Bosworth, now generally seen as a southern suburb of Hinckley, close to the Warwickshire border. Its name means a valley or brook with a fortification.

Leofric, Earl of Mercia, gave Burbage to Coventry Abbey in 1043, when it was valued at two shillings. By Domesday in 1086 it was worth four pounds, with twenty villagers, a meadow a furlong square and woodland half a league long.

It stayed a small farming community for centuries. Diocesan returns in 1564 counted 57 families in Burbage and six at Sketchley, the 1801 census found 1,098 people and the population did not pass 2,000 until the twentieth century.

In the Civil War its closeness to Hinckley drew raiding parties from the Parliamentary garrisons in north Warwickshire. A claim submitted by the constables of Burbage and Sketchley in June 1646 lists provisions taken by Captain Flower's troop from the Coventry garrison and free quarter worth £18 10s.

Sullivan Heights is about 10 miles by road from Burbage, Stoke Lodge and Stoke House about 11 miles and Humber Hub about 12 miles. Sullivan Heights is the nearest base for anyone working between Coventry and Hinckley.