A Leicester couple who spent decades championing the New Parks community have been honoured with a new heritage panel recognising their lifelong service to the estate.
Don and Doris Connolly moved to Pickwell Close in the 1950s and quickly became central figures in community life. As founding members of the New Parks Residents’ Association, they played key roles in securing the New Parks Community Centre on Oswald Road and an adventure playground on Glenfield Road — both of which continue to serve local families today.
Picture credit: Leicester City Council
Don served as chairman of the New Parks Community Project, while Doris volunteered behind the community centre bar and organised an annual Christmas toy collection for children on the estate. The pair, who raised eight children, were also long-standing members of the Communist Party, with Don chairing the Leicester branch for 30 years.
Their decades of service have now been formally recognised by Leicester City Council with a heritage panel celebrating their contribution to the area.
Assistant city mayor Cllr Vi Dempster, who unveiled the panel, praised the couple’s dedication. “I was fortunate to know both Don and Doris and it’s fair to say they were truly remarkable people,” she said. “It is no exaggeration to say that they dedicated their lives to improving the estate for others. It’s therefore wholly appropriate that we dedicate this latest panel to two community champions whose hard work over half a century had such a profound impact on an entire estate.”
The couple’s daughter, Karen Laywood, said the family was touched by the recognition. “Mum and Dad would have been very proud to see their work being honoured in such a way, especially here in New Parks itself, where they spent many years uplifting the community,” she said. “It was great to see friends and family at the unveiling, and we’d like to thank the city council for producing this heritage panel.”
Doris Connolly died in 2009, aged 85, and Don passed away in 2012 at the same age. Shortly after Doris’s death, the council named Connolly Close — a development of council homes off Birkenshaw Road — in their honour.
The new panel, located outside New Parks Library on Aikman Avenue, was unveiled on Saturday (29 November). It becomes the latest addition to the city council’s Story of Leicester project, which has installed 387 heritage panels across the city since 2014 to celebrate Leicester’s people, places and 2,000-year history.
