Spotlight on Heritage – Mapping Memory: Tracing Leicester Lives Through War and Work with Nick Laband
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In this episode of Spotlight on Heritage on Soar Sound, John Coster and Rob Watson are joined by digital history enthusiast and mapping specialist Nick Laband, who shares his fascination with Leicester’s social and military past during the early 20th century. What begins with a family heirloom – a box of First World War medals – leads Nick on a long-term journey into local archives, mapping projects, and census records that reveal much about Leicester’s working communities and wartime experiences.
Nick’s focus is the period from 1901 to 1921 – a transformative time bracketed by census years that help trace the contours of everyday life before, during, and after the Great War. In conversation, Nick explains how his skills in digital mapping have enabled him to spatially connect lives, workplaces, and battalions across the city. His work makes visible the links between industry, military service, and neighbourhood life – from Filbert Street and Belgrave Road to the factory floors of the British United Shoe Machinery Company.
The conversation also reflects on the evolving nature of public records. While Nick’s father relied on visits to Somerset House and church archives in the pre-digital era, today’s family historians navigate Ancestry.com and the 1921 census. What, they ask, do these shifts tell us about how we value and remember social history?
There’s a clear sense that the way we interpret maps, names, and records isn’t just about nostalgia. It’s about making sense of the civic relationships that shaped Leicester’s streets, workplaces, and regiments – and in turn, the sacrifices and solidarities of those who lived through times of profound change.
As the conversation looks forward to the 90th anniversary of the start of the Second World War in 2029, John, Rob and Nick reflect on what kind of commemorations and projects might be possible – and how digital mapping might again play a role in connecting generations through shared memory.
This episode offers a thoughtful, grounded approach to heritage, asking how we use documents, stories and spatial data to better understand our city and the people who shaped it. It’s a reminder that history is not just found in grand narratives, but in everyday names, streets, and decisions – many of which still resonate today.
Listen now to explore how personal history becomes public memory, and how Leicester’s past continues to speak to us through maps, medals, and the stories we choose to follow.
