It was on the lands of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, a rich and powerful magnate who had fought alongside Canute in his wars against Wessex.

In old English, "wella" is the word for stream and "bar" the name for boar, and so this clearing in the woods was known in the Saxon tongue as Barwelle.

In 1043, Earl Leofric and his wife, Godiva, established a Benedictine Abbey at Coventry and gave the Abbot and his twenty-four attendant monks, lands for their upkeep.

As recounted, Captain Shenton who served in the royalist army returned to his house at Barwell with several other officers after the battle of Worcester.

Hearing that the parliamentarians were looking for him he sank his portmanteau and valuables in the moat which surrounded the house, and sought refuge in the tree.

Despite being close enough to overhear his enemies discussing the price on his head the bold Captain Shenton escaped capture and kept his estate, passing it on through his daughters.

[citation needed] In June 1646 the inhabitants of Barwell and surrounding villages made several submissions to the county committee for losses and free quarter from the local parliamentary garrisons.

[6] Professor Sylvester-Bradley of Geology Dept at Leicester University confirmed that the fragments were from a chondrite and appealed for further specimens.

In December 2016, Leicestershire County Council unveiled a plaque in Barwell, marking the meteorite event that happened within the village.

[8] The inscription on the plaque reads: On Christmas Eve 1965, one of the largest meteorite falls recorded in British history landed close to this site Its flaming arrival was followed by a sonic boom, before the 4.5 billion-year-old rock exploded into hundreds of piecesThe local council launched a community house in 2009 to help tackle anti-social behaviour.

Barwell takes part in the longest continuous cricket fixture in the world, when they play Coventry and North Warwickshire in their annual match.

AFC Barwell offers football coaching and matches to around 300 children, both girls and boys, between the ages of 3 and 18 years old.

[12] Between the 19th and late 20th centuries, Barwell was a busy industrial village consisting of numerous shoe, hosiery and knitwear factories.

Competitive pressure from abroad was partly to blame; other factors included the 1965 credit squeeze which affected shoe and hosiery firms.