Scalford

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 52.81
longitude= -0.866667
official_name= Scalford
map_type= Leicestershire
shire_district= Melton
shire_county = Leicestershire
region= East Midlands
post_town= MELTON MOWBRAY
postcode_district = LE14
postcode_area= LE
dial_code= 01664
os_grid_reference= SK7624
constituency_westminster= Rutland and Melton

Scalford is a medium size village (about 500 persons and 200 homes) which lies 4 miles to the north of Melton Mowbray at the southern end of the Vale of Belvoir. The name of the village comes from old Saxon and originally meant shallow ford. In the same parish are two hamlets, Wycomb and Chadwell. The latter has a tiny C of E church, St Marys which was damaged in the 17th century and is now restored in a smaller form and open for worship on special event days, eg harvest festival, Easter and Christmas.

The Scalford church which is on a small hill in the centre of the village is named after St Eglewin and is believed to be the only one in the country named after this saint. The Methodist Church, built in 1844, is very active and hosts a 'Preschool' every morning, has a luncheon club monthly and regular activities in addition to its 10.45 Sunday morning service. It is unusual in that it has a garden and its own cemetery.

Currently (2008) there is one public house and restaurant in the village, the Kings Arms. There is a school and a post office which also sells a limited range of groceries, while the modern village hall hosts a range of commumity activities.

Like many villages, Scalford has lost a number of industries and amenities over the years. There used to be a dairy which produced Stilton cheese, three bakers, a blacksmith, stonemasons, builders, a shoemender, a range of shops (one incorporated the post office), a garage and a second pub, The Plough, all now gone. There were also flourishing brickyards around 1875 to 1930 and bricks with the Scalford imprint burned in can still be found. The masters house remains and is called Lion House after the company name.

There is now a garden centre and landscape developer and in the summer of 2008 this local company won a gold award at a nationally recognised competition at Sandringham, Norfolk for their imaginative japanese garden.

However, Scalford still has a good community spirit and has not been over-developed, new housing in recent years being restricted to in-fill and a small development on the site of the dairy.

In times gone by, the village was entirely surrounded by a triangle of railways. Scalford station was on the GNR and LNWR Joint Line from Market Harborough to Bottesford, while a number of mineral lines, attracted by the iron-ore mining which used to take place in this part of the Vale of Belvoir, completed the triangle. Before 1939 the lines were often used for transporting horses to the local races and point to point meetings.

A new book, Railways of Leicestershire and Rutland, by David Webb (2007), illustrated by the Mason brothers, [Ian Allan, Isbn (10) 0 7110 3219X] shows the lines and pictures of the locomotives. The trains have long since departed into history, but some of the infrastructure still exists in the form of various cuttings and embankments, which have largely become incorporated into the countryside.

Scalford is situated on the Jubilee Way and a 'stop off ' for walkers between Melton and the lovely Vale of Belvoir. Scalford can be reached from Melton or the Vale by regular buses, and there is more than adequate parking at the village hall, which is overseen by nearby houses. There are quiet roads suitable for cycling, and for the children 'Twinlakes', a recently added fun park with very good resources for children of school age since no adult is admitted without a child.

Scalford hall, on the outskirts of the village, is an Edwardian mansion house which is now an 88 room hotel, management training centre and wedding venue. In the 1930s it was the home of Colonel Coleman, of the Colemans mustard company. The Colonel was a friend of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, and thoughout their much publicised courtship, Edward and American divorcee Wallis Simpson regularly stayed at Scalford Hall. Colonel Coleman died in the hunting field as he might have wished.