History factfile

• Melton played host to the first ever Grand National in 1846 when a two-day race meeting combined the Croxton Park Races with a steeplechase at Burton Lazars.

• The Old Club, infamous for its lavish parties and the drunkards who spilled out onto the streets, in fact only had four bedrooms.

By the 1840s races at Burrough-on-the-Hill were regularly attracting crowds of more than 2,000.

In 1846, newspapers reported one of the largest crowds ever as Melton hosted a two-day racing special with the Croxton Park Races followed by what has been referred to as the first Grand National Hunt Steeplechases at Burton Lazars.

Thousands of people arrived in Melton, and records show the hotels, clubs and houses were full to bursting.

Goods traffic was banned

A reporter for the Leicester Journal wrote: “I’m afraid to say how many pork pies, the staple commodity of the town, were got ready.

“A stranger would say that lack of grub would be impossible.”

Thousands of people walked or rode carriages to the Burton Lazars racecourse, which had been marked out with flags, and the stewards’

stand was filled with ladies.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing a continuous line of carriages coming over Leesthorpe Hill and along Burton Flats to the event.

Cooksboro’ won the race but the owner of its rival, Game Chicken, objected that the winning jockey was neither a farmer nor a gentleman jockey and won on appeal.

Supporters hoped to make it a permanent racing fixture but despite their best efforts, the Grand National never returned to the borough.