The identification of Deserted Villages and Lost Places in Leicestershire owes much to the pioneering work of William George Hoskins during his time at the University of Leicester.
[2] In 1956 he published in the Transactions an account of seven of the key sites, Baggrave, Cold Newton, Great Stretton, Hamilton, Ingarsby, Lowesby and Quenby.
[6] The Leicestershire series compiler Barrie Cox also produced a summary of the key place-names in the county in 2005,[7] although the number of lost places included was limited.
Thus, Canby in Sileby,[10] Brastorp in Ashby de la Zouch which is now represented by Prestop,[11] and Lowton in Humberstone[12] have been added to the list of places that are in some way disguised in the modern landscape.
The university's continuing annual excavation of the Burrough Hill site has highlighted its long residential history and subsequent decline.
The Knave Hill abandoned Saxon settlement which was featured by Time Team on Channel 4 in 2008, also brought greater and wider recognition of the wealth of deserted and lost places in Leicestershire.
As in other counties, continuing archaeological and historical document research is revealing further abandoned sites of the period including a much denser coverage of Romano-British villas in Leicestershire than previously identified.
Many people know of, and visit sites such as Baggrave, Great Stretton, Hamilton and Knaptoft where there are clearly marked earthworks, isolated churches or remnants of buildings.
Cox has narrowed the choice for Lilinge to two likely sites, one between Bittesby and Ullesthorpe, the other close to the separate deserted village and lost place that form the intriguing Westrill and Starmore parish,[20] which for many years in the 20th century had a population of four.
Painstaking research has related it to the Gillethorp listed in the Leicestershire Survey of about 1130 and located it between Somerby and Newbold Saucey,[21] the latter itself a Deserted Medieval Village.
Contemporary development of Meridian Park at Braunstone Town and extensive housing areas at Leicester Forest East have engulfed what remained of Lubbesthorpe.
W. G. Hoskins's comment that any gaps on the Ordnance Survey maps of Leicestershire where a number of paths converge may be sites worthy of research holds true sixty years on.