Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BOSWORTH (Market)

BOSWORTH (Market), a village, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Leicester. The village stands on an eminence ¾ of a mile E of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch canal, 5½ miles W of Desford r. station, 6 NE of Watling-street, and 11½ W by S of Leicester. It has a post office‡ under Hinckley, a banking office, an inn, a church, Independent, Baptist, and Primitive Methodist chapels, a grammar school, almshouses, and a workhouse; and is a seat of petty sessions and a polling-place. The church is early English; was recently restored; has a lofty handsome spire; and contains monuments of the Dixies. The grammar school was founded in 1593, and rebuilt in 1827; has an endowed income of £980, with four scholarships at the universities; and had as a master, the Rev. Anthony Blackwall, author of "Introduction to the Classics," as an usher, Dr. Samuel Johnson,-and as pupils, Dawes, author of "Miscellanea Critica," and Thomas Simpson, the celebrated mathematician. A weekly market is held on Wednesday, and fairs on 8 May and 10 July.-The township includes also the hamlet of Coton. Real property, £7,003. Pop., 997. Houses, 191.—The parish contains likewise the chapelries of Sutton-Cheney, Shenton, Carlton, and Barlestone. Acres, 7,449. Real property, £17,670. Pop., 2,376. Houses, 514. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged once to the Hastings family; and belongs now to Sir Alexander Dixie, Bart. Bosworth-Field, now a meadow, adjacent to the canal. 2 miles S of the village, was the scene of Richard II I. 's defeat, in 1485, by the Earl of Richmond, who mounted the throne as Henry VII.; and a spring on it, at which the king is said to have drunk during the battle, and called Richard's well, was covered over in 1812 by R. Smith, Esq. of Sutton House, and bears an inscription by Dr. Parr. This field was also the scene of the skirmish, in 1644, between the parliamentary and the royal forces. The living is a rectory, united with the p. curacies of Sutton-Cheney. Shenton, and Barlestone, in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £903.* Patron, Sir A. Dixie, Bart. The vicarage of Carlton is a separate benefice.

The subdistrict contains the parishes of Peckleton, Desford, Newbold-Verdon, Cadeby, Sibson, Twycross, Orton-on-the-Hill, Norton-juxta-Twycross, and Congerston, the extra-parochial tract of Gopsall-Hall, most of the parishes of Market-Bosworth and Shackerstone, and part of the parishes of Kirkby-Mallory, Barwell, and Hinckley. Acres, 35,137. Pop., 7,185. Houses, 1,541.—The district includes also the subdistrict of Ibstock, containing the parishes of Thornton, Ratby, and Markfield, and parts of the parishes of Market-Bosworth, Ibstock, Shackerstone, and Nailstone. Acres of the district, 53,526. Poor-rates, £8,709. Pop. in 1841, 13,600; in 1861, 13,428. Houses, 2,911. Marriages, 97; births, 444,-of which 47 were illegitimate; deaths, 212,-of which 66 were at ages under 5 years, and 13 at ages above 85 years. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 967; births, 4,347; deaths, 2,551. The places of worship in 1851 were 26 of the Church of England, with 7,195 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 184 s.; 8 of Baptists, with 2,064 s.; 9 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,119 s.; and 7 of Primitive Methodists, with 887 s. The schools were 31 public day schools, with 1,801 scholars; 22 private day schools, with 328 s.; 33 Sunday schools, with 2,089 s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 18 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a township, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Market Bosworth AP/CP       Market Bosworth SubD       Market Bosworth RegD/PLU       Leicestershire AncC
Place names: BOSWORTH     |     BOSWORTH MARKET     |     MARKET BOSWORTH
Place: Market Bosworth

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