Ratcliffe on the Wreake is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

in the Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 179. It is just to the north of the River Wreake, opposite East Goscote. The village is small enough not to have a parish council; instead it has a

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

consisting of all the electorate. The 14th-century St Botolph parish church is a Grade II* listed building. Ratcliffe Hall is a Grade II listed country house built c. 1812 by Robert Shirley, 7th Earl Ferrers and was inherited by his granddaughter, Caroline Shirley, Duchess Sforza Cesarini, who had married into the Italian aristocracy. It subsequently descended to the pioneer aviator, Sir William Lindsay Everard, who set up Ratcliffe Aerodrome, which opened with a 'Grand Air Pageant' on 6 September 1930. Famed aviator

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records du ...

made an unexpected trip from London to participate with Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation. Some 5,000 spectators were treated to a show with 100 planes and staged bombings of Chinese pirates. There was one crash, but no one was killed. Ratcliffe Aerodrome was one of the finest in civil aviation with a comfortable clubhouse and an outdoor pool. The hangars were first class and the many air shows and displays had the atmosphere of a garden party. Ratcliffe is known for its abundance in wildlife especially

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, ...

which inhabit the River Wreake right through the village.

RAF Ratcliffe

As RAF Ratcliffe, it was an important

Air Transport Auxiliary The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was a British civilian organisation set up at the start of World War II, the Second World War with headquarters at White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire. The ATA Ferry flying, ferried new, repaired and damaged milita ...

ferry pool in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Apart from East Goscote, nearby places are

Thrussington Thrussington is a village and civil parish in the Charnwood (borough), Charnwood district of Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 587. It is on the River Wreake, near to Rearsby, Ratcliffe on the W ...

, further up the Wreake, Syston, further down, and Sileby, to the north-west.

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Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Borough of Charnwood {{Leicestershire-geo-stub