Twycross
Twycross is a small village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the A444 road. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 850. The civil parish includes the hamlet called Little Orton, as well as Twycross Zoo, and the selective, private Twycross House School.
Administratively, Twycross forms part of the Hinckley and Bosworth district. It is named 'Twycross' because its centre lies at the intersection of three roads. The A444 connects it to Burton-on-Trent and Coventry and the B4116/B4114 to Birmingham.
The Twycross Cricket Club is a village club with a 1st and 2nd XI who play in the Leicestershire Senior League. It also has a Sunday XI which plays many friendly games throughout the season.
The 1st team XI play regularly in the Premier division, whilst the 2nd team XI play in division 3, which hosts a 1st team and 2nd teams while also holding a Sunday friendly team. It has a youth set-up with under-15, under-13, and under-11 teams.
The church of St. James contains the oldest stained glass in England, originally from Sainte-Chapelle, Saint-Denis, and Le Mans Cathedral. The earliest glass is c.1145 from Saint-Denis, the panels having been presented to William IV who gave them to Earl Howe, who got the glazier Thomas Willement to arrange and install them in the church during its restoration in the 1840s.
The video game developer Rare is based at Twycross. The company has developed games and series such as BattleToads, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, GoldenEye 007, Viva Piñata, Banjo-Kazooie, Killer Instinct, Conker, Perfect Dark, Kameo, Sea of Thieves, and many of the Donkey Kong games from as early as Donkey Kong Country in 1994 to as recent as Diddy Kong Racing DS in 2007. They became a Microsoft first-party in 2002.
