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Croft St Michael and All Angels

Posted by on 8:53 pm in Directory | 1 comment

Croft St Michael and All Angels

All Leicestershire people should know Croft Hill, eight miles south-west of Leicester off the old Roman Fosse Way (now the B4114), it stands 128m high (approx 420ft) and is slowly being eaten away by the large quarry works below. The hill is the only large natural feature in the otherwise flat Soar valley and from the top of the hill you can view much of the southern area of Leicestershire and beyond. They are creating another hill nearby from the spoil and landscaping the area with woodland and walks for public access. The area is popular...

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Cosby St Michael and All Angels

Posted by on 8:36 pm in Directory | 0 comments

Cosby St Michael and All Angels

Cosby is around 6.5 miles south of Leicester in the district of Blaby. Its nearest neighbour the smaller Littlethorpe used to be part of the parish of Cosby and had its own chapel where the priest from Cosby would have held mass. The location of the old chapel in unknown but I would expect it to be some where near the old square in Littlethorpe. The church at Cosby is mostly later Middle ages in the Decorated and Perpendicular style, older parts have been hidden by subsequent renovation and rebuilding, the first rector is recorded in 1220 but...

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East Norton All Saints

Posted by on 8:22 pm in Directory | 2 comments

East Norton All Saints

Situated 12 miles east of Leicester the village of East Norton which the busy A47 passed through is now bypassed, and the road now passes to the south of the village. The census in 2001 records a population of 94, in other words a small village as most are in this area of Leicestershire. In medieval times the manor of East Norton belonged to the Priory of Launde, after the Reformation it passed like Launde to Gregory, Lord Cromwell and Elizabeth his wife. By 1850 the village had over 150 inhabitants, a police station and Courtroom were built...

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Thrussington Holy Trinity

Posted by on 8:10 pm in Directory | 1 comment

Thrussington Holy Trinity

Back to Leicestershire and my slow progress up the River Wreake. The village of Thrussington has a population of around 500 and is a few miles north-east of Leicester just off the busy A46. The church of Holy Trinity is a small church with nave, chancel, south porch, north & south aisles and west tower. The oldest fabric dates to the 13th century with later additions. There are traces of an earlier south wall visibly externally between the nave and south aisle and in the spandrels of the south arcade. The chancel dates to the 13th century...

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Stonton Wyville St Denys

Posted by on 7:59 pm in Directory | 5 comments

Stonton Wyville St Denys

Stonton Wyville lies 11 miles south-east of Leicester in the district of Market Harborough. As with Cranoe and Glooston which are already in the Journal, this again is a very small village which forms part of the Gartree Hundred which was an administrative area dating back to 1086. There was a priest mentioned living in the parish in 1086 but the earliest parts of the church date back to c 1300. It is built of Ironstone rubble and limestone and consists of a chancel, bell-cote and nave. The south wall of the nave originally had a south aisle...

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Welham Church At Andrew

Posted by on 7:47 pm in Directory | 1 comment

Welham Church At Andrew

Welham lies 4 miles north-east of Market Harborough and the river Welland runs nearby to the south of the village which forms the county line with Northamptonshire. It is a now a very small village of one street, in earlier times (as in most rural villages) the population was higher, in 1603 the village had 86 communicants. Today the population is below 50. The church sits apart from the current village and it is probable that the medieval village lay to the south of the church. The buildings to the north side of the road date to 1720 when a...

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Shangton Church St Nicholas

Posted by on 7:37 pm in Directory | 1 comment

Shangton Church St Nicholas

This quiet little village some 10 miles south-east of Leicester has never had a large population and like so many around east Leicestershire it has plenty of charm. The village is recorded in the Domesday Book and was thought to be part of a bequest to Burton Abbey (Staffs) in 1002-04. After the Norman Conquest there were three holdings in Shangton, those of the king, Robert de Vescy and Hugh de Grentemesnil who had the largest holding. In the 12th century it passed to the Earls of Leicester and then to the Duchy of Lancaster. It passed...

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Thorpe Langton St Leonard

Posted by on 7:24 pm in Directory | 2 comments

Thorpe Langton St Leonard

Four miles north of Market Harborough is the small village of Thorpe Langton, which means ‘long town’ from the Anglo-Saxon. In the early 19th century the census returns reported 215 people living in the village in 1821, this gradually declined to 83 in 1881 but has increased to nearly 150 as recorded in the 2001 census. The church at Church Langton was the mother church of the chapel at Thorpe Langton, and both of them were granted to Leicester Abbey in the 12th century. There was no resident rector at Thorpe Langton but by the...

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Glooston St John the Baptist

Posted by on 2:57 pm in Directory | 16 comments

Glooston St John the Baptist

In 1086 the recorded population of Glooston was eight. This village increased to 177 by 1831 but has steadily declined to 54 in the 2001 census. There has been some new housing near the road to Goadby so perhaps this has increased. But we can still safely say that this is a small village like so many others in this area of Leicestershire, and like them it is also located in beautiful countryside. It has been occupied for centuries, a Roman Villa was excavated in 1946 by the stream, and today the Brudenell family own much of the land as they...

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Whetstone St Peter

Posted by on 2:46 pm in Directory | 0 comments

Whetstone St Peter

Whetstone in the district of Blaby is approx 5 miles SSW of Leicester. It is surrounded by the large villages of Enderby, Blaby and Narborough with a large ugly half derelict industrial estate on the road south to Cosby where originally Sir Frank Whittle built and designed the jet engine. Like the surrounding villages it has seen large housing projects over recent years which have increased the population to around 6,000. It has no real centre as such and relies on its very near neighbour Blaby for local shopping and some amenities. Blaby...

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