Leicestershire Villages: P, Q and R
If you’re reading this, you probably know the drill: here are the 19 Leicestershire villages beginning with P, Q and R. Links to previous instalments at the bottom of the pages.
174. Packington, south of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. In the 1840s, 617 of its 672 residents lived in a Derbyshire exclave, and the parish had its own exclave, Snibston, four miles east. The Packington Blind Horse, who bred here in the mid-C18th, is considered the foundation stallion of the Shire breed.
175. Peatling Magna, south of Leicester. In August 1265, villagers here attacked passing Royalist soldiers after the Battle of Evesham for being ‘against the welfare of the community of the realm’, in support of the defeated Barons1. Tetty Johnson (1689-1752), wife of Dr Samuel Johnson, grew up here.
176. Peatling Parva, north-east of Lutterworth, known in the Domesday Book as ‘Alia Petlinge’ (‘Other Peatling’). The Vulcan XH558, which first flew in 1960 and was the last airworthy Avro Vulcan bomber, was restored at nearby Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, and restarted flying from there in 2007.
177. Peckleton, west of Leicester. Robert Chessher (1750–1831), the first British orthopaedist, who invented various supports for fractured and deformed limbs, is buried here. Nearby Desford Aerodrome was used to train RAF fighter pilots during World War II; at its peak, 120 Tiger Moths were based here.
178. Pickwell, south of Melton Mowbray. William Cave (1637-1713), clergyman and historian, who wrote about the early Christians and was a chaplain to Charles II, was born here. Cave’s father John (1590-1657) was vicar during the Civil War, but was ejected after a campaign by Parliamentarians.
179. Plungar, west of Belvoir. The name probably comes from plum-trees. Church registers are sparse as in the late 1700s, one parish clerk, also the village grocer, used pages from the register to wrap groceries. In 1953, oil was found here, the first post-war onshore oil field discovered in Britain.
180. Potters Marston, south-west of Leicester, named for a medieval kiln that operated here from c1100-1300: Potters Marston Ware jugs and pots have been excavated across the county. It is believed the village was depopulated by the Black Death, and it now only has a few houses, a Hall and the small church.
181. Queniborough, north-east of Leicester, known in the Domesday Book as ‘Cuinburg’. Nikolaus Pevsner called the 162ft needle spire of St Mary’s church ‘one of the finest in the county’. A tame bear named Fanny, apparently once kept in the garden of the Britannia Inn, would regularly escape and go walking round the village.
182. Quorn, south-east of Loughborough. Previously (and still officially) Quorndon (Old English: Cweorndun, the hill where millstones come from), the postal name was changed in 1890 to stop confusion with Quarndon, 25 miles away in Derbyshire (and pronounced the same). Residents have included ex-Guardian editor Peter Preston, cricketer David Gower and goalkeeper Gordon Banks.
183. Ragdale, west of Melton Mowbray, claims to have the oldest church bell in the county (dating from c1300). The Old Hall, which once stood behind the church, was built by the Shirley family as a falconry lodge in the C16th, and was enlarged in the C17th, becoming the seat of Earl Ferrers. It was demolished in 1956.
184. Ratby, west of Leicester. Ratby means ‘village by the fort’: to its west is Bury Camp, thought (from pottery finds) to be an Iron Age hillfort that was later used by the Romans. Ratby had a station on the Leicester and Swannington Railway, one of the oldest in Britain, which opened in 1832.
185. Ratcliffe Culey, in west Leicestershire. The C14th All Saints Church has (unusually) been largely unaltered for 650 years. The Ratcliffe Culey (Leicestershire) Inclosure Act, passed by Parliament on 14 May 1766, enclosed 560 acres of common land, changing employment, farming methods and the landscape.
186. Ratcliffe on the Wreake, north-east of Leicester. Ratcliffe Aerodrome was established by Sir Lindsay Everard MP, who then owned Ratcliffe Hall and ran Everards brewery. It opened on 7 September 1930 with a display of over 100 aircraft, attended by Amy Johnson. It became RAF Ratcliffe during WW2.
187. Ravenstone, west of Coalville. 1980s excavations found evidence of a Roman town including C3rd pottery kilns. In the mid-C12th, the Earls of Chester and Leicester agreed to destroy a castle that was here, perhaps a wooden building on a mound with a dry moat, possibly to make salt trade routes safer.
188. Rearsby, north-east of Leicester. After the 1870 Education Act, a village primary school was opened in January 1872, with 72 children in two small classrooms. Absence rates were high, as children were kept away to help in the fields, or for work such as ‘seaming socks or bean dropping’.2
189. Redmile, north of Belvoir. Daffy’s Elixir, an all-purpose medicine invented by Thomas Daffy (d 1680), rector here, was made until the C19th and was mentioned in Oliver Twist. In May 1941, a bombing attack on the Vale of Belvoir caused craters in nearby fields and damaged windows, but no casualties.
190. Rolleston, east of Leicester. In the early C20th, Lord Churchill (Winston's cousin) lived in Rolleston Hall. He inserted an east window in the church in memory of his mother, Jane, Lady Churchill, who was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria for 46 years. The Hall was rebuilt in the 1950s.
191. Rotherby, north-east of Leicester. Vikings settled in this area: the ending ‘by’ is Danish for ‘town’. The church was restored in 1882 at a cost of £2,000: £160 came from a ‘Fayre’ in the Leicester Corn Exchange in May 1882. Two large, old houses, a Manor and a Hall, were both demolished in the 1920s/30s3
192. Rothley, north of Leicester, has a C9th Saxon cross in the churchyard. Henry III granted the Manor to the Templars, who founded Rothley Temple. Thomas Babington MP (1758-1837), who inherited the Temple, worked with William Wilberforce here on the campaign to abolish the slave trade, enacted in 1807.
Previous instalments: ‘A’s, ‘B’s, ‘C’s, ‘D’s and ‘E’s, ‘F’s and ‘G’s, ‘H’s and ‘I’s, ‘K’s and ‘L’s and ‘M’s, ‘N’s and ‘O’s. Next instalment: ‘S’ part 1.
I find it intriguing that C13th peasants had such awareness of politics and current affairs, and that they saw themselves as being in the same ‘community’ as the Barons. (Among those killed at Evesham was the leader of the Baronial forces, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.)
Source: https://rearsbyvillagenews.co.uk/village-history/