What is "loddington"

'''Loddington ''' is a small village and civil parish north of Market Harborough and east of Leicester in the county of Leicestershire. It has a population of 77, increasing to 230 (including East Norton and Launde) at the 2011 census.

In 1125, the village was granted to Launde Priory by Richard Basset and his wife, as part of the original endowment of the priory.

Loddington Hall, the local manor house, was first recorded in 1475 and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries became the property of Thomas Cromwell, whose son, Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell sold it to Sir John Pretyman, 1st Baronet. He sold it in turn to the Morris family, who occupied it for several generations. In the 1900s it was acquired as a hunting lodge by Sholto Charles Douglas, Lord Aberdour (later Earl of Morton), but since 1934 has been owned by the Allerton family. It was requisitioned by use by paratroops during the Second World War, after which it was occupied by the evacuated Cone Ripman Dance School. In 1984 Lady Allerton sold the derelict building, and it has since been renovated as a family home.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust has a base at Loddington House, on the Loddington estate, where it has run the Allerton Project since 1992 to demonstrate the integration of game and wildlife conservation with profitable farming.