Leicestershire Villages: F and G
There are 23 villages in Leicestershire beginning with ‘F’ or ‘G’, and over the last few years I’ve walked to or from all of them, so here’s a snippet about each. Links to previous instalments at the end of the post.
77. Fenny Drayton, once known as Drayton-in-the-Clay, lies north-west of Hinckley. The founder of the Society of Friends (or Quakers), George Fox, was born here in 1624. The geographical centre of England lies in a field on Lindley Hall Farm to the south-east of the village.
78. Fleckney, south-east of Leicester. In the C19th, heavy grey-blue Fleckney clay was used to make bricks, which were among those used to build St. Pancras station. Annabella, Lady Byron, the wife of the poet Lord Byron, was lady of the manor and founded a school in the village.
79. Foston, south of Leicester, had 26 households in the Domesday Book, but was largely abandoned by c400 years ago, after enclosure. Today there is a church, a rectory, a few houses and a farm. In fields east of the church are banks, hollows, & traces of a roadway, probably once the village street.
80. Foxton, north-west of Market Harborough. A spur of the Grand Union canal goes through the village. Foxton Locks to the west is the longest set of staircase locks in the UK, rising 23 metres in a quarter mile. For ten years in the early C20th they were replaced by a double boat lift.
81. Freeby, east of Melton. Isaac Watts (1674-1748), a Non-conformist Minister who wrote many hymns (including ‘Joy to the World’), preached his first sermon at Freeby, in the chapel of Sir John Hartopp, Lord of the Manor and Leicestershire MP, for whom he was chaplain and tutor.
82. Frisby on the Wreake, west of Melton. In the second half of the C18th, Rev William Brecknock Wragg allowed couples from distant parishes to marry - presumably often against relatives’ consent - earning Frisby comparison with Gretna Green. Rev Wragg was eventually suspended.
83. Frolesworth, north-west of Lutterworth. John Smith (1657-1726), who was the second Chief Baron (judge) of the Exchequer in Scotland following the 1707 Act of Union, was born here. He founded and endowed the Frolesworth Hospital for 14 poor widows, and is memorialised in the church.
84. Gaddesby, north-east of Leicester. St Luke’s Church is considered one of the finest in the county, due to the decorated west end of the south aisle (out of sight to the left of this photo), which Simon Jenkins calls ‘one of the most eccentric compositions on any English church’. (Jenkins also said the decorated west end of the south aisle “appears to have been designed at the end of a riotous fourteenth century party.”)
85. Garthorpe, east of Melton Mowbray. The name may come from the Old English ‘gar’, meaning ‘spear’, as it is on a spear-shaped triangle of land near where two watercourses meet, including the River Eye. Colonies of Natterer’s and Brown-Eared Bats roost in the church, St Mary’s.
86. Gaulby, east of Leicester. In the C12th, the church was given to the leprosy hospital at Burton Lazars. It was rebuilt in 1741 by William Fortrey (who also rebuilt nearby King’s Norton church). The pinnacles on the tower (which Pevsner called ‘a display of the craziest pinnacles’) are like pagodas and obelisks.
87. Gilmorton, north-east of Lutterworth. The name roughly means ‘Golden Moor Farm', reflecting the fertility of the land. The village - founded in the later Saxon period, and larger than Lutterworth at the time of the Domesday book - once had a small, wooden Motte and Bailey castle.
88. Glen Parva, just south-west of Leicester. In 1866, workmen digging near Glen Parva found the remains of a young Saxon woman (the ‘Glen Parva Lady’) who died around 1,500 years ago. She was buried with rich grave goods, eg brooches, revealing much about the era she lived in1.
89. Glenfield, west of Leicester. When it opened in 1832, Glenfield Tunnel was, at just over a mile, the longest steam railway tunnel in the world. It was on the Leicester & Swannington Railway, connecting the NW Leicestershire coalfields to Leicester, and was used until the 1960s.
90. Glooston, north of Market Harborough. The Roman Road ‘Via Devana’, from Colchester to Chester, went nearby, but its exact course is unknown. In 1946 a local teenager, Rosemary Cramp, dug up tiles from a Roman villa, which set her on a course to become a Professor of Archaeology.
91. Goadby, north of Market Harborough. Racehorse Desert Orchid (1979-2006), known as ‘Dessie’, the most famous grey in British steeplechasing, was foaled at Goadby. His most famous win came in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March 1989 in front of almost 60,000 people.
92. Goadby Marwood, north of Melton Mowbray, is thought to be the site of a small, iron-working Roman town on the Salt Way, with a villa nearby. Quarrying in the 1950s uncovered Roman bowl furnaces; later finds included coins, rings, spoons, pendants, knives, a figurine of Mercury and a votive axe.
93. Great Bowden, just north of Market Harborough. It was the centre of a C11th/C12th Soke (administrative area), including lands in 12 other villages, & was known in the Domesday book as ‘Bugedone’. Market Harborough was a separate township in the ancient parish of Great Bowden.
94. Great Dalby, south of Melton Mowbray (once called Dalby Chalcombe). On 2 January 1658, the church’s spire was struck by lightning & collapsed into the nave. Apparently collectors ran off with money collected to build a replacement, so this pyramidal roof was built instead.
95. Great Easton, in the south-eastern corner of the county. The first episode of “Time Team’s Big Dig” in June 2003, presented by Tony Robinson, concluded that the earliest settlement, in or pre-Roman times, was in the north-east of the village, around where the church is now. The programme can be found on YouTube.
97. Great Glen, south-east of Leicester. Henry Grey, Lady Jane Grey’s father, was Lord of the Manor here while his daughter was briefly Queen in 1553. Before the 1645 Battle of Naseby, the Royalists Headquartered here, and afterwards Cromwellian soldiers camped overnight in the church, breaking windows.2
143. Great Stretton, south-east of Leicester. Following depopulation as a result of enclosure in the mid-C17th, little is left of the village beyond a disused church surrounded by poignant grassy earthworks. Robert de Stretton (d. 1385), chaplain to Edward, the Black Prince, was born here.
98. Grimston, north-west of Melton Mowbray. The village has some timber stocks with two pairs of leg-holes beneath a tree on the Green, which are listed. Grimston Station (actually nearer Saxelbye), which closed in 1957, was on the Melton to Nottingham line, now the Old Dalby Test Track.
99. Groby, north-west of Leicester. Sir Edward Grey (c1415-57), father-in-law of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV’s Queen & mother of the Princes in the Tower, lived here. The Greys later built the mansion at Bradgate, to the north, childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, briefly Queen in 1553.
100. Gumley, north-west of Market Harborough. In Anglo-Saxon times, when it was called Godmundeslaech, this was a recognised meeting place for Mercian witenagemot (councils). King Æthelbald (who reigned from 716-757) issued an important charter here in 749, after a dispute with the church.
Previous instalments: ‘A’s, ‘B’s, ‘C’s, and ‘D’s and ‘E’s.
I’ll put a link to the ‘H’s and ‘I’s here when I’ve done them.
Glen Parva Lady was in the Jewry Wall museum, which is currently being refurbished. It’s not clear whether she’ll still be able to live there when it reopens.