Leicestershire is a fascinating and diverse county. Its countryside, market towns and historic buildings attract large numbers of visitors. Place names show evidence of Roman, Saxon and Norman settlement. The Normans built castles and churches and although the castles are now in ruins, Leicestershire has some of the most beautiful parish churches in the country. The Tudor era was born in Leicestershire when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in August 1485. Centuries later, in 2012, an ambitious excavation project uncovered the remains of Richard III under the site of a Leicester car park, and these have since been reinterred in the city-s cathedral. Some of the canals and railways created in Leicestershire during the Industrial Revolution have become popular heritage sites, and the county is also known for its Stilton cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are famous throughout the world.Rutland is England-s smallest county and for a time was incorpor
