View source for Launde

{{Short description|Civil parish in Leicestershire, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2015}}
[[File:Launde Abbey Chapel Leicestershire.jpg|thumb|Launde chapel]]
'''Launde''' is a [[civil parish]] in the [[Harborough District|Harborough]] district of [[Leicestershire]], bordering [[Rutland]]. The parish is the site of [[Launde Abbey]].  It gives its name to an [[electoral division]] of Leicestershire that stretches all the way from [[Scraptoft]], [[Thurnby]] and [[Stoughton, Leicestershire|Stoughton]], near [[Leicester]], to the border with Rutland. The civil parish population is included in the civil parish of [[Loddington, Leicestershire|Loddington]].
Launde Park lies in the valley of the [[River Chater]]. The Elizabethan house embodies the relics of the old priory and is an E-shaped building of two storeys. The private chapel is from the Perpendicular period and contains some good stained glass. There are numerous memorials of the Simpson family who bought Launde in 1763 and enlarged the house and laid out the plantations. The estate was later owned by the Dawson family.<ref>Firth, J. B. (1926) ''Highways and Byways in Leicestershire''. London: Macmillan; pp. 240-41</ref>
[[Launde Woods]] is a nature reserve managed by the [[Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust]], and part of it is [[Launde Big Wood]], which is a [[Site of Special Scientific Interest]].
==References==
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==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Launde}}
{{Coord|52.629|-0.830|region:GB|display=title}}
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[[Category:Villages in Leicestershire]]
[[Category:Civil parishes in Harborough District]]
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