[5] Then, looking toward Hugglescote (down a track that is now Belvoir Road), "we see a magnificently timbered lane without a single house, with the exception of White Leys Farm and the Gate Inn on the Ashby Turnpike".

Despite its emergence as one of the largest towns in Leicestershire, Coalville's history was not well documented until the establishment of historical societies in the 1980s, though some information had been put on record by a few independent local historians.

Deep coal mining was pioneered by local engineer William Stenson who sank the Long Lane (Whitwick) Colliery on a relative's farm land in the 1820s.

Six collieries – Snibston, Desford, Whitwick, Ellistown, South Leicester and Bagworth – closed in and around Coalville in an eight-year period from 1983 to 1991, resulting in about five thousand men being made redundant.

[citation needed] The company was originally established in 1858, though an early reference to a granite quarry at Bardon Hill appeared in 1622, in William Burton's "Description of Leicestershire".

[23] Tulip Foods (formerly Belvoir Bacon) on Mantle Lane was incorporated as a limited company on 1 July 1954, having started about twenty years previously, as a slaughterhouse supplying pork products to a local shop in Coalville owned by the Bloor family.

Reportedly occupying an area equivalent to 19 football fields, the centre employs hundreds of citizens in the Leicestershire region and is operational twenty four hours a day.

[27] However, following Leicestershire County Council's 2009 report citing construction costs of £50 million and a large operational subsidy, the scheme was dropped, prompting outcry from proponents.

An official town guide, produced by the Coalville Urban District Council, circa 1968, has proved to be a useful source in chronicling the development and histories of early religious groups.

The same legislation also ordered that 'burials be wholly discontinued in the General Baptist Chapel Burial-ground', which was located just a short distance away from the church, near the present day council offices.

[38] According to local writer, Elizabeth Hewes,[39] this was erected by William Stenson – the founder of Whitwick Colliery – who was a staunch baptist, as a more "select place of worship" for himself and his wife.

Following Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, the re-establishment of the bishops, and Parliament's attempt in 1662 to impose a single form of religious observance throughout England (the Act of Uniformity 1662), the vicar of Ravenstone (John Shuttlewood or Sittlewood) was removed from office in 1660, the vicar of Whitwick (John Bennett) was removed from office in 1662 and William Sheffield (a former rector of Ibstock, but who had moved to Stoke Golding where he was a curate) was suspended on 13 October 1662.

The Bardon Park Chapel, situated about three miles (five kilometres) from Coalville, is a Grade II Listed building, widely regarded as being the oldest non-conformist place of worship in Leicestershire.

The neighbouring parish of Whitwick was a focal point in the Roman Catholic revival early in the nineteenth century due to the zealous missionary work instigated by Ambrose de Lisle of Gracedieu Manor, a mission which eventually spread to encompass the new town of Coalville.

In that year, Mass was first celebrated in a private house on Ashby Road and services were subsequently held in a local dance hall and later in a theatre owned by Mr Charles Tyler.

[30] After a few years, Mr Edwin de Lisle offered to build a temporary church, entirely at his own expense, on a site on Highfields Street, which had previously been acquired by Father Matthew O'Reilly, the parish priest at Whitwick.

[30] In the year 1900, again through the generosity of Mr de Lisle, a new church was erected on the site and which was opened by Edward Bagshawe, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nottingham in the presence of a large gathering of the general public.

The western facade of the church is clad in green Swithland slate with a carved stone statue of St Wilfrid in the gable by Michael Clark, and the side walls comprise a series of shallow curved bays with two tiers of segment-headed windows.

[47] Another important development within the Coalville Roman Catholic community was the founding of the Convent of the Poor Clares, on Forest Road, close by the railway bridge "where the Sisters dedicate themselves to the education of the children of Saint Wilfred's Parish".

Paul Hayward is only the sixth musical director in the choir's seventy four-year history, having succeeded Dr Georgie Lorimer, Cynthia Moseley, Aubrey Ward, Les Anderson and Harry Toon.

[61] Established in 1893, the Coalville Times is a weekly newspaper that covers the town and the whole of North West Leicestershire, as well as areas of South Derbyshire and Hinckley and Bosworth.

The Coalville Rugby Football Club was founded in 1902 and has a modern clubhouse off Hall Lane, Whitwick, replacing one that had previously stood on Broom Leys Road.

[70][71] A fishing lake occupied the site of a former clay quarry which filled with water after disuse for some years following the demise of the adjacent brick-making works, all trace of which has now disappeared following the development of the Hermitage sports complex.

[citation needed] In June 2014, it was reported that consideration was being given by the local district council to the designation of the Coalville town centre as a conservation area, something which English Heritage has encouraged.

[90] Despite alterations to its ground floor and a modern addition at its southern end, the building maintains a significant presence in the street scene with its brick and faience triple gabled frontage.

Standing a short distance from the old Co-operative Bakery, on the corner of Market Street and Wolsey Road are the former East Midland Housing Association Offices, which was provided with a third storey extension, circa 1990.

The Miners' Memorial Statue is a bronze sculpture situated on the site of the old railway station and which was officially unveiled by David Taylor MP and the Right Reverend William Down, Assistant Bishop of Leicester, in 1998 to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Whitwick Colliery Disaster, in which thirty five men and boys lost their lives.

A measure of criticism has been aired by some of the former mining community that the representation of a man, standing with a raised pickaxe, does not reflect the true conditions of the narrow seams of the district, in which men would have more typically been forced to hew coal from a prostrate or kneeling position.

The sculpture was unveiled on 11 October 1963 by Colonel P H Lloyd, Chairman of Leicestershire County Council, and stood in the New Broadway Shopping Centre until it was moved to its present location on High Street in 1988.

Officially opened on 6 November 1990, the Morrisons store comprises some 70,000 square feet and is a prominent feature overlooking the Stephenson Way, with a clock tower containing four faces at its south-west corner.