Ratby

Ratby is a commuter village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. It is situated to the west of Leicester, and just south of the M1 motorway. (Groby is on the northern side of the M1.) It has a population of about 4,000. The population of the civil parish (including Field Head) was measured in the 2011 census as 4,468. Other nearby places include Kirby Muxloe, Glenfield and Markfield. The proximity of Ratby to Leicester causes it to form part of the Leicester Urban Area.

Ratby is one of three nearby settlements whose name preserves the Brittonic word for "ramparts" (cf. Gaelic rath ), along with Ratcliffe-upon-Soar and the Roman ruins at Leicester, known as Ratae Corieltauvorum. The suffix -by (/-bi/) is Old Norse for a farmstead or settlement.

The oldest known human settlement in Ratby was at the Bury Camp on the edge of Ratby, an Iron Age encampment dating back approximately 3000 years. Later, the Roman army adapted the camp for use as a temporary fort in around 50 AD.

The next oldest structure is the historic Church of St Philip & St James, called Ratby Church, built in four stages from the 13th through 15th centuries and restored by Nicholas Joyce in 1881. The church was appropriated to Leicester Abbey in 1291 and afterwards to Nuneaton Priory. There are also some cottages dating back several centuries.

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