Site-Search
Coming Soon
|
Site-Search |
|
Page and site |
|
Lutterworth in Leicester County England History and GeographyLUTTERWORTH, a market town and parish, in the hundred of GUTHLAXTON, county of LEICESTER, 13 miles (S. by W.) from Leicester, and 89½ (N.W. by N.) from London, on the high road to Lichfield, Chester, and Liverpool, containing 2102 inhabitants. This place was formerly noted for the peculiar vassalage of the tenants of the manor, who were obliged to grind their corn at one particular mill of the lord, and their malt at another, so lately as the year 1758, when they obtained a decision at the Leicester assizes empowering them to erect mills, and to grind where they pleased. The town is situated on the small river Swift, which falls into the Avon. It is regularly built, and consists principally of one main street, from which some minor ones diverge: it is lighted by subscription, and paved by means of the proceeds of an ancient benefaction of land, now producing about £200 per annum, and under the management of two officers, called 'Town Masters,' who are annually chosen at the manorial court leet. The cotton and tammy manufactures were formerly carried on to a considerable extent, but the latter has been discontinued for many years, and the former declined about the year 1816; the present staple manufacture is coarse worsted hose, and a few ribands are also made. The market is on Thursday; and fairs are held on the Thursday after February 19th, April 2nd, Holy Thursday, and September 16th, for horses, cattle, and sheep; the last is also for cheese. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Leicester, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £26, and in the patronage of the Crown. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious and handsome structure, with a nave, aisles, and a chancel separated from the nave by a beautiful screen: the tower was originally surmounted by a spire, which fell down about a century ago, when four pinnacles were substituted. This edifice was repaired, beautified, and paved with checquered stone, about the year 1740, and the whole interior renovated, with the exception of the pulpit, which is a fine specimen of the early English style, of an hexagonal shape, composed of thick oak planks, with a seam of carved work in the joints, and possesses great interest, being the same in which the great reformer Wickliffe preached, he having been rector of this parish from 1374 to 1387, when he died, and was interred in the church; but, in the year 1428, his bones were disin terred by a mandate from the Pope, and publicly burnt, and the ashes thrown into the river. His portrait is preserved in the church, as well as the chair in which he died, and the communion cloth used by him, which is of purple velvet trimmed with gold. The Hon, and Rt. Rev. Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and formerly rector of this parish, in 1814, appropriated a library for the use of the parishioners, to be deposited in the church, with an allowance to the clerk to keep it in order. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A free school and almshouse were founded and endowed by means of a bequest of £200 from the Rev. Edward Sherrier: the master receives a salary, and four almsmen 7s. each per week. A charitable benefaction from Robert Boles, for educating and apprenticing six poor boys, amounts to about £57 per annum; and one from Margaret Bent, for educating four boys, to about £14 per annum. Richard Elkington, of Shawell, by will dated May 29th, 1607, devised to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of Leicester, as trustees, the sum of £50, to be lent, in sums of £10 each, to five tradesmen of Lutterworth, for the term of one year, at the rate of five per cent., the interest to be divided among certain poor persons; in default of applications, the money was vested in land some years since, which was recently sold, under a decree of the court of Chancery, and produced £1000, that sum being now lent, in sums of £50, for three years, at three per cent. In the reign of John, an hospital for a master and brethren, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was founded and endowed by Roise de Verdon and Nicholas her son: at the dissolution it was valued at £26. 9. 5. per annum. There is a small petrifying spring in the vicinity. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
Readers of this page were also interested in: Clitheroe in Lancaster County England History and Geography CLITHEROE, an unincorporated borough, market town, and parochial chapelry, in that part of the parish of WHALLEY which is in the higher division of the hundred of BLACKBURN, county palatine of LANCASTER, on the eastern bank of the Ribble, 30 miles (N.) from Manchester, 49 (N.E.) from Liverpool, 26 (S.E.) from Lancaster, and 216 (N.N.W.) from London, containing 3213 inhabitants Ives (St.) in Huntingdon County England History and Geography IVES (ST.), a market town and parish, in the hundred of HURSTINGSTONE, county of HUNTINGDON, 6 miles (E.) from Huntingdon, and 59 (N. by W.) from London, containing 2777 inhabitants. The Saxon name of this place was Slepe, by which it is also distinguished in Domesday-book. It belonged to the abbot of Ramsey, who, in the beginning of the eleventh century, founded a church here in honour of St Lytham in Lancaster County England History and Geography LYTHAM, a parish in the hundred of AMOUNDERNESS, county palatine of LANCASTER, 6 miles (S.W. by W.) from Kirkham, containing 1292 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Richmond, and diocese of Chester, endowed with £800 and a rent-charge of £7 private benefaction, £600 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of John Clifton, Esq Saxmundham in Suffolk County England History and Geography SAXMUNDHAM, a market town and parish in the hundred of PLOMESGATE, county of SUFFOLK, 20 miles (N.E. by N.) from Ipswich, and 89 (N.E.) from London, containing 989 inhabitants Stanton-Harcourt in Oxford County England History and Geography STANTON-HARCOURT, a parish in the hundred of WOOTTON, county of OXFORD, 4½ miles (S.E.) from Witney, containing 606 inhabitants. This place was granted by Queen Adeliza, second wife of Henry I., to her kinswoman Milicent, wife of Richard de Camville, whose daughter Isabel married Robert de Harcourt. It is situated near the confluence of the small river Windrush with the Thames Woolwich in Kent County England History and Geography WOOLWICH, a market town and parish in the hundred of BLACKHEATH, lathe of SUTTON at HONE, county of KENT, 8 miles (E. by S.) from London, containing, according to the last census, 17,008 inhabitants, which number has, since that period, considerably decreased |
