For centuries local history had been a favourite pursuit of elderly antiquarians, but now it was to be pressed into service for the instruction of the young. In 1908 the Board of Education issued a notable circular on the teaching of history in secondary schools. It had been preceded, and in all probability inspired, by a meeting of the Historical Association, at which one speaker after another had supported a plea for the teaching of local history in schools. Parcelling up the map of England into conveniently small administrative or topographical units, the local historian focuses attention on one of them in the hope of discovering new facts, or new light on old facts, and thereby enriching the history of England as a whole. The term 'Leicester school' was first used by Professor Asa Briggs when discussing work published by past and present members of the department of English Local History in the university of Leicester.