Barrow-on-Soar

Barrow upon Soar is a large village in northern Leicestershire, in the Soar Valley between Leicester and Loughborough. It has a population of around 5,000 and is part of the Charnwood local government district. The population as measured at the 2011 census was 5,856.

It lies on the east bank of the River Soar at its confluence with the Fishpool Brook, and is just opposite the A6 from Quorn. The village is on the Midland Main Line, and Ivanhoe Line trains stop at the Barrow-upon-Soar railway station. The Mountsorrel Railway, carrying granite from the Mountsorrel quarries, used to run here; the line from Mountsorrel is still followed by a mineral conveyor to Barrow, where quarry rock is sorted for distribution.

The village is famous for a plesiosaur excavated there in 1851, of the species Rhomaleosaurus megacephalus, nicknamed the "Barrow Kipper". The dinosaur was found in a lime pit outside the village, and a roundabout with a sign representing its skeleton lies at the centre of the village. The skeleton is on display at the New Walk Museum in Leicester, with a full-size replica on display at Charnwood Museum in Loughborough.

Barrow was the birthplace in 1915 of the Second World War fighter ace Air Vice Marshal Johnnie Johnson. The Editor of Current Biology Geoffrey North also hails from Barrow.

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