Wanlip is a small village and civil parish in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, with a population measured at 305 at the 2011 census. It is a countryside village, north of Birstall, and west of Watermead Country Park and the River Soar. The A46 road runs directly past the village. Wanlip won the 2008 Leicester and Rutland Best Village Competition for villages with a population under 500. To the south of Wanlip is Wanlip Meadows, a Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust nature reserve. To the north is a Severn Trent sewage treatment plant, serving a population of more than half a million. The Cedars Academy lies to the south at the edge of Birstall. To the east lies the 14 hectare Reedbed Local Nature Reserve, part of the Watermead Country Park. Wanlip is the site of a 132-metre-high wind turbine which went into operation at the end of 2013. History An Iron Age settlement was unearthed just to the north of Wanlip and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery was discovered during the building of Longslade School in 1958, One of the earliest mentions of Wanlip is in Domesday book, where it is listed as Anelepe, among the lands given to Earl Aubrey by the King. The land described includes a mill. The Earl's son Aubrey de Vere II went on to become Lord Chancellor. The surnames of the three families who have owned the manor over eight centuries are: Walsh 1230-1526 Aston 1526-1626 Palmer 1626-today William Wilberforce, the 19th century MP and leading abolitionist, lived for some years at Wanlip Hall. There are four listed buildings in Wanlip: a brick ice house, the church of Our Lady and St. Nicholas, Manor Farm and Hall Farm. Church of Our Lady & St Nicholas Much of the structure of this parish church was erected in the 13th and 14th centuries but there have been a variety of later alterations, including changes made in the 19th century and the south aisle which was built in 1904. The walls are constructed mainly of granite rubble with ashlar dressing. It is a Grade II listed building. The chancel floor is notable for housing the brass that commemorates Sir Thomas Walsh and his wife Katherine. This comprises the figures of the couple with a border that is the earliest surviving example of an English inscription for a high-status tomb monument. The inscription reads: “Here lyes Thomas Walssh knyght