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Knighton
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Description in 1871:
"KNIGHTON, a chapelry in St. Margaret parish, Leicestershire; adjacent to the Midland railway, 2 miles S by E of Leicester. Post town, Leicester. Acres, 1,020. Real property, £6,356. Pop. in 1851, 494; in 1861, 641. Houses, 122. The manor belongs to Sir William E.Hartopp, Bart. Many of the houses are villas, with large gardens, and inhabited by the manufacturers of Leicester. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the vicarage of St. Margaret, in the diocese of Peterborough. The church is a neat edifice, with tower and spire. There are a Wesleyan chapel, and a national school."
[John Marius WILSON's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-72]
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- The parish was in the Wigston sub-district of the Blaby Registration District.
- In 1892, due to the Civil Parish being abolished, the area was placed in the West Leicester sub-district of the Leicester Registration District.
- The 1851 Census for Leicestershire has been indexed by the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society. The whole index is available on microfiche. The society has also published it in print.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
Census Year | Piece No. |
---|---|
1841 | H.O. 107 / 599 & 600 |
1861 | R.G. 9 / 2256 |
1871 | R.G. 10 / 3231 |
1891 | R.G. 12 / 2498 |
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene.
- The ecclesiastical parish was formed in August, 1878, from that of St. Margaret's parish in Leicester city.
- The church seats 600.
- Mat FASCIONE has a photograph of St. Mary Magdalene Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009.
- Mat FASCIONE also has a photograph of the Lychgate on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009. Here your coffin would wait, protected from the elements, while the bearers gathered.
- The ecclesiastical parish of St. John the Baptist was formed in 1917. The church was in Clarendon Park Road and was erected in 1885 as a Chapel of Ease to St. Mary Magdalene's.
- St. John's Church seats 800.
- A Chapel of Ease to St. John the Baptist was built in 1898 and consecrated as St. Micheal and All Saints. It seated 560.
- A third Chapel of Ease was St. Guthlac's Chapel in South Knighton, partly erected in 1912.
- The Church of the Holy Apostle. Fosse Road South, was consecrated in 1924. It could seat 600.
- The Anglican parish register dates from 1650. The register for St. John the Baptist dates from 1885.
- The church is in the rural deanery of Leicester.
- The village also had a Weslyan Methodist chapel by 1849.
- Tony ELLIS provides a photograph of the Evangelical Free Church on Geo-graph, taken in 2008. This is a fairly recently constructed church.
- Mat FASCIONE has a photograph of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2007.
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837, but the Civil Parish didn't exist until after 1866.
- The parish was in the Wigston sub-district of the Blaby Registration District.
- In 1892, due to the Civil Parish being abolished, the area was placed in the West Leicester sub-district of the Leicester Registration District.
Knighton was a village and a parish 94 miles north of London and about 2 miles south-east of Leicester city. The parish consisted of the townships of Knighton, South Knighton and Stoneygate. The parish covered 1,600 acres in 1881.
The village has been re-absorbed by Leicester city as a suburb. If you are planning a visit:
- By automobile, take the A6 trunk road south-east out of Leicester about 2 miles. A road to the right leads to the Knighton district.
- Kate JEWELL provides a photograph of Knighton Road on Geo-graph, taken in 2005.
- Ask for a calculation of the distance from Knighton to another place.
- In the 1700s and 1800s many of the inhabitants were the manufacturers and professional people of Leicester.
- Ashley DACEN has a photograph of the Wheatsheaf Works on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2011. This was, for a time, the largest shoe factory in the world.
- David MARTIN has a photograph of a Stairway to Nowhere on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015. Surely this must be an historic structure!
- J. THOMAS has a photograph of The Cradock Arms on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2014.
- J. THOMAS also has a photograph of the Aberdale Inn on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2014.
In 1849, Knighton Hall, was the seat of Sir Edmund Cradock HARTOPP, Bart., who was lord of the manor and chief land owner.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK604015 (Lat/Lon: 52.607635, -1.11022), Knighton which are provided by:
- OpenStreetMap
- Google Maps
- StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
- Bing (was Multimap)
- Old Maps Online
- National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
- Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
- English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
- Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
- GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)
- All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
- Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
- Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.
There is a white marble tablet in a wooden frame inside St. Mary Magdalene Church that is a War Memorial. All three men on the plaque have the surname SMITH and all three died in the First World War.
- This place was an ancient Chapelry in St. Margaret's parish in Leicester and became a separate, modern Civil Parish in December, 1866.
- The parish was in the ancient Guthlaxton Hundred in the southern division of the county.
- In March, 1896, this parish was reabsorbed into Leicester Civil Parish which was re-incorporated at that time.
- The Memorial Cottage Almshouses, in Knighton drive, were erected by Miss Sarah BARLOW for four poor widows, each of -whom receives 5S. weekly (in 1925).
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the Leicester petty session hearings.
- As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Blaby Poorlaw Union.
- In 1892, this parish was abolished and the Knighton district placed under the Leicester Poorlaw Union.