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Melton-Mowbray in Leicester County England History and GeographyMELTON-MOWBRAY, a market town and parish, in the hundred of FRAMLAND, county of LEICESTER, 15 miles (N.E.) from Leicester, and 105 (N.W.) from London, containing, with the chapelry of Freeby and the township of Welby, 2990 inhabitants. The ancient name of this place was Medeltune, which has been gradually contracted to Melton, indicating the situation of the town in the middle of the five hamlets which compose the parish; the adjunct is the name of its ancient lords, which they assumed by command of Henry I. During the civil commotion in the time of Charles I., a severe action took place in this neighbourhood, between the royalists and the parliamentary troops, in February, 1644, when the forces of the latter, consisting of about two thousand men, were routed with great slaughter. The town sustained considerable damage by fire in 1613, and in 1637 the plague raged here with great violence. It is situated on the direct road from London to Leeds, in a valley on the little river Eye, and is small but neatly built: the streets are paved, watched, and lighted, the expense being defrayed out of the rental of the Town Estate, consisting of property in land, anciently the gift of some unknown benefactor, which produces nearly £800 per annum, and is under the management of a committee of twenty-one, and two wardens, chosen annually by the inhabitants: the first fifty lamps were given by Lord Harborough, in the year 1790. There is a good supply of water: the Eye and the little brook Scalford are crossed by three bridges, one of which, at the extremity of the town, leading to Oakham, was rebuilt in 1820. Here is a building fourteen feet in diameter, called the Manor oven, in which, in the time of Sir Matthew Lambe, an attempt was made, on the plea of feudal right, to compel the inhabitants to bake their bread; but they having resisted the claim, constructed for themselves another oven of larger dimensions. The principal attraction of Melton, and one great cause of its increasing improvement as a town, may be referred to the celebrated hunt to which it gives name: the season commences in November, and continues about five months, during which there is an influx of sportsmen from all parts of the kingdom, and there is stabling for nearly seven hundred horses. Here is a permanent subscription library and news-room. The principal article of manufacture is bobbin net-lace, and there is a minor one of worsted hosiery. The general traffic has been facilitated, especially in the supply of coal, by opening a navigable communication with Loughborough, called the Melton-Mowbray and Oakham canal, which was effected in 1790, and which, near the town, is intersected by the river Wreak. The market is on Tuesday, and on every alternate day there is a large shew of cattle. Fairs are held on the Monday and Tuesday after January 17th, March 13th, May 4th, Whit-Tuesday, August 21st, and September 7th, principally for horses, cattle, and sheep. A court leet and baron, for the recovery of debts under 40s., is held every three weeks. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Leicester, and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books at £16. 8. 9., and in the patronage of Peter Godfrey, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious, lofty, cruciform structure; the tower, which rises from the intersection, is partly in the early style of English architecture, and at the west end is a handsome entrance porch; the nave is separated from the aisles by six high pointed arches on each side, springing from clustered columns. In the reign of Elizabeth, the church was considerably heightened, and a series of elegant windows was put up over the aisles: in 1736, the south and north-east pinnacles being struck by lightning, precipitated fragments of five or six hundred weight through the north transept: the edifice is at present undergoing a thorough repair, and the work is executed in perfect accordance with the original style of the building. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. Schools appear to have been established here at a very early period, and are noticed as existing previously to 1347, when they were taken under the patronage of Edward III., as possessor of the temporalties of the priory of Lewes. Two schools are at present maintained from the town estate; the National, or lower, school, open to all children of the town above six years of age, free of expense, who are removed, at the discretion of a committee, to the upper school, which is limited to forty-four boys, the number in both schools being about three hundred: there are two exhibitions from this school, conjointly with another at Leicester, to Lincoln College, Oxford. An hospital was founded in 1638, by Robert Hudson, Esq., for six unmarried men, who were to receive £13 per annum each, by quarterly payments: it has been recently rebuilt and enlarged for the additional accommodation of six poor women, who are maintained from a benefaction made by the Rev. Henry Storer, of Frisby, in 1620, for the benefit of the poor, and now producing yearly £27. 10. In 1756, Mr. John Bourne bequeathed £300, directing the interest to be applied to the support of three unmarried poor inhabitants of Melton, and legally settled there, of the age of sixty years. John de Kirkeby, Bishop of Ely in 1286, and founder of Ely palace, Holborn; Archbishop William de Melton, who attained the dignity of Lord High Chancellor of England in the reign of Edward III.; and the talented, but eccentric, John Henley, who, under the popular appellation of Orator Henley, acquired considerable notoriety about the middle of the last century, were natives of this place: Henley was educated at the free school and the Archbishop was buried in the church. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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