A pub quiz question for you…Which English county was the only one that didn’t have an official flag until July 19…after a wait of more than 1,000 years?   Answer: Leicestershire.

The red and white flag features the emblems of the de Beaumont and de Montfort families, who both held the Earldom of Leicester, and a free-running fox, representing the emblems of many of the county’s sporting clubs.

Leicestershire might have been without a flag until recently, but it has always been a fascinating place to explore…

Trace the life of King Richard III, and his death at Bosworth Fields, and reconstruct the War of the Roses. In 2012, researchers and archaeologists discovered a skeleton under a car park in the city of Leicester, believed to be the remains of Richard III. Visit the Leicester’s medieval Guildhall, one of the oldest civic buildings in the country, alongside Leicester Cathedral.

Visit Belvoir Castle (pronounced ‘beaver’ by the locals) housing many treasures collected throughout the ages. The School Room and Nursery let children experience lessons and play in Regency times.

Then it’s off to Foxton Locks, on the Grand Union Canal, to see the longest and steepest ‘staircase’ of locks in the country and learn about life on the narrowboats in the 19th century.

Now time for a slice of Leicestershire’s world famous Melton Mowbray pork pie, a generous knob of the amazing creamy, blue-veined Stilton cheese…and a generous tot of sloe gin.