Sitting at the northern edge of Leicester, Rushey Mead borders the city limits where urban streets give way to the Leicestershire villages of Thurmaston and Birstall, both within the Borough of Charnwood. To the south and west lies Belgrave, while Humberstone and Hamilton and Northfields sit to the east and south-east, separated by the Midland Main Line. The ward takes in the whole of the Rushey Mead suburb along with parts of Belgrave and historical sections of Northfields and Thurmaston. At the 2011 census, the ward’s population stood at 15,962.
From Thurmaston Parish to City Ward
Rushey Mead’s administrative history stretches back to the 19th century, when the area formed part of the Thurmaston civil parish. In 1894 it was separated and gazetted as the Thurmaston Urban District, before being annexed to the City of Leicester in 1935, at which point it took on the name Rushey Mead. One notable modern moment in the suburb’s story came on 5 December 2015, when American politician Jesse Jackson – twice a Democratic Party candidate for the presidential nomination – visited Rushey Mead to open a park named in his honour.
The Thorn Lighting Factory on Melton Road
For much of the 20th century, Rushey Mead was home to one of Britain’s most significant lamp manufacturing sites. In 1946, British Thomson-Houston (BTH) opened the Mazda Lamps Factory on Melton Road, producing electric lamps under the Mazda brand name, licensed from General Electric of the USA. BTH had already merged with Metropolitan-Vickers in 1928 to form Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), and the holding company was later taken over by the General Electric Company (GEC) shortly after 1967. In 1964 the factory was renamed Thorn Lighting following a merger, and General Electric acquired Thorn Lighting in 1991. The site housed research laboratories and development workshops of considerable output, and for many years ran a Christmas lights display that drew visitors from across Leicester and the wider Midlands. Known locally as “GE Thorn” or simply “Thorn Lighting” – a name associated with Sir Jules Thorn, who ran the business in the 1970s – the factory closed in 2007 after 61 years of lamp production. The site is now occupied by a Sainsbury’s supermarket, and a large metallic sculpture called The World Tree stands on the former factory grounds.