Help! We Are Raising Funds Keep the church open for everyone
Help! We Are Raising Funds Keep the church open for everyone
Mentioned in the Domesday book our little village is dominated by its huge church. This video shows the beautiful village surroundings. Composed by a talented villager, watch and enjoy what we get to see everyday!
Here is what British history online has to say about us.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol5/pp256-264
King's Norton lies seven miles east-south-east of Leicester on a spur of the uplands of eastern Leicestershire. The civil parish of Little Stretton is a chapelry of King's Norton. The area of the ancient parish of King's Norton is about 1,010 a. The spur on which the village stands projects southwestwards from the upland area and lies between the River Sence and one of its tributaries. The ground rises from about 400 ft. near the rivers to over 500 ft. The soil is clayey, with a clay and gravel sub-soil. On the east and west the parish boundary for the most part follows field boundaries; on the north it is marked by the Sence; and on the south it follows the Gartree road. King's Norton lies between two main roads leading from Leicester-those to Uppingham and Market Harborough-but minor roads lead from the village to both main roads, as well as to the Gartree road which skirts the southern edge of the parish. The village lies around the junction of three minor roads, leading to Galby, Little Stretton, and Illston on the Hill.
The small cluster of houses includes the manor-house, Vicarage, and church. There are only two isolated farm-houses: Norton Gorse Farm, near the large Norton Gorse plantation, in the north-west of the parish, and a second in the west. There is a large disused gravel pit to the south-west of the village. King's Norton has never been a large village. Its tax assessment in 1334 was only 10s. (fn. 1) and only 36 people paid the poll tax in 1381. (fn. 2) In 1563 there were 12 households. The figure of 154 communicants in 1603 probably refers to Little Stretton as well as King's Norton. In 1670 there were 17 households, and in 1676 38 communicants. (fn. 3) There were 14 families early in the 18th century. (fn. 4) In 1801 the population was 60; after a very small increase during the 19th century, it had fallen to 43 by 1951. (fn. 5) The manor-house, now known as Manor House Farm, stands close to the east end of the church and is a large L-shaped brick building of two stories and attics. Most of the remaining structure was probably built by William Whalley (d. 1635) or his son Ralph. The principal arm of the L is a wing running north and south; a lower wing extends from its east side. The internal arrangements of the main block indicate that it was built as a parlour wing of some pretensions with large southern rooms, a central staircase, and smaller northern rooms; its division into three bays is common to all floors including the attics. It is built of thin red brick with limestone dressings above a high ironstone plinth; the gables have stone copings and the present slate roof is modern. Two stone-mullioned and transomed windows remain in the west wall. Similar windows have been altered or blocked elsewhere in the wing and the south gable-end was re-fenestrated with pairs of sash windows to each floor in the time of Bernard Whalley (d. 1752). The smaller wing has several blocked stone windows and has probably been truncated at its east end where a large chimney stack with ribbed brick shafts is clearly part of an earlier structure. A single-story brew-house, added to the north side of the house c. 1800, is now the kitchen. The old kitchen was probably the ground floor room in the smaller wing which has a wide fire-place and exposed ceiling joists. In the attic rooms above this wing is an arch-braced collar-beam truss which may antedate the rest of the house. The lower flights of the mid-17th-century staircase in the parlour wing were altered to one straight flight late in the last century. The upper flights have plain chamfered handrails, heavy turned balusters, and newels with pierced finials. Near to the east end of the house is a square brick dovecote with a hipped roof and a louver similarly roofed. The walls have a small diaper pattern in vitrified brick headers. It probably dates from the later 17th century. Another outbuilding carries a tablet dated 1726 with the initials of Bernard and Anne Whalley.
William Fortrey is said to have demolished 'the old hall-house of Norton' with the intention of building a new one but to have only completed the offices before his death. (fn. 6) These last may be identified with the two brick houses forming a row on the south side of the churchyard and now known as The Limes. At their south end are limestone balustrades and steps, apparently re-used. The entrance gates in the west wall of the churchyard are said to have come from the old house and to have been set in their present position by Fortrey. (fn. 7) The classical stone gate-piers have pineapple finials and the wrought-iron gates are work of c. 1720.
The site of the old hall-house is not known and it is possible that it was not completely demolished and that the present Manor House Farm represents part of the structure. On the other hand the fact that in 1666 William Whalley and Stanhope Whalley were assessed for 12 and 10 hearths respectively (fn. 9) suggests that two important houses were standing in the parish at that time. Wyggeston Farm is a two-storied brick house built c. 1700 on the site of an older house of which a lower ironstone cross-wing survives at the west end. This in turn seems to encase the remains of an earlier structure. The house may perhaps be identified with Beamond's Farm, let to Ralph Whalley in 1637. (fn. 10) To the north-east of the house is the only surviving timber-framed cottage in the parish, dating from the 17th century.
Lime Cottage in the same cul-de-sac is of 18th-century brick, and opposite is the former blacksmith's cottage and, behind it, the small ruined smithy. The Grange, formerly a private house known as The Laurels, was built in 1870 by G. C. Heap. Several cottages, including three with mud walls, have been demolished within living memory.
The village hall, a wooden hut, was given in 1921 by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd. There are two pairs of Council houses in the village, built after 1945. MANOR. In 1086 the royal soke of Bowden, which before the Conquest had been held by Edward the Confessor, included 3 carucates of land and 5 a. of meadow in KING'S NORTON. (fn. 11) By 1130 the 3 carucates were held by the Earl of Leicester. (fn. 12) King's Norton was among the Earl's estates which in 1204 passed to Saer de Quency as husband of a co-heir of Robert FitzParnell; Saer was created Earl of Winchester in 1207. (fn. 13) Roger de Quency, Earl of Winchester, held King's Norton at his death in 1264, and it was assigned to his relict in dower. (fn. 15) His lands were in 1277 divided among co-heirs and King's Norton went to his daughter Ellen and her husband Alan la Zouche. At a later Alan's death, in 1314, it passed through his daughter Maud to her husband Robert de Holand. (fn. 17) He was succeeded by his son Robert in 1328. (fn. 18) King's Norton passed to the Lovels in c. 1373 by the marriage of Robert de Holand's granddaughter to John, Lord Lovel. (fn. 19) William Lovel held it at his death in 1455, (fn. 20) but the manor appears to have been subsequently acquired by the Hastings family (fn. 21) for in 1532 George, Earl of Huntingdon, settled King's Norton on his son Francis, Lord Hastings, when he married the daughter of Henry, Lord Montagu. (fn. 22) No further descent of the overlordship has been traced. In 1130 King's Norton was held by Pipard from the Earl of Leicester. (fn. 23) The Earl of Winchester's under-tenant in 1264 was William Burdet, (fn. 24) and in 1277 King's Norton was said to be held from the Earl's heirs by Thomas de Hendeshovere; Burdet was probably, however, intermediate between the heirs and Hendeshovere in 1277 as he was between them and Thomas de Endis (probably to be identified with Hendeshovere) in 1279. (fn. 26) By 1313 the manor was held from Alan la Zouche by William de Bereford, (fn. 27) and a Bereford held it in 1328 and 1454. (fn. 28) The Burdet and Bereford families were probably never the demesne tenants. In 1277 and 1279 Robert de Norton held the manor from Thomas de Hendeshovere (or Endis) (fn. 29) and in 1284 Robert claimed that his ancestors had held land in King's Norton since the late 12th century. (fn. 30) The Nortons held the manor in 1316 and probably later, (fn. 31) but by 1346 it had passed to Henry Mallorie. (fn. 32) William Levere was lord in 1368. (fn. 33) In 1514 the manor was acquired by Robert and John Borowe and Henry Peyll from George and Mary Kyngeston, (fn. 34) and Robert Borowe's descendants transferred it to Thomas Whalley in 1582. (fn. 35) The Whalley family held the manor until Bernard Whalley's death in 1752 when William Fortrey, husband of Anne Whalley, acquired it. (fn. 36) In 1783 Fortrey was succeeded by his nephew Henry Green, (fn. 37) who was still in possession in 1847 when he owned 765 a. of land. (fn. 38) The estate apparently passed to the Heap family and later to the Powys-Kecks; as part of the Powys-Keck estate, it was bought by the Cooperative Wholesale Society, Ltd. in 1919. (fn. 39) The manorial rights may, however, have been separated from the estate in the mid-19th century and acquired by the Earl of Stamford and Warrington. (fn. 40) After 1919 the C.W.S. disposed of part of its estate in King's Norton: 255 a. was sold to W. H. Heard in 1927 and other land to Wyggeston's Hospital in 1928. (fn. 41)
ECONOMIC HISTORY. In 1086 there were 3 carucates of land and 5 a. of meadow in King's Norton. (fn. 42) One of the largest medieval landowners in King's Norton was Owston Abbey which by 1360 had built up an estate of 191 a. around the nucleus of the glebe lands; the abbey had other land in Little Stretton. In King's Norton approximately 70 a. lay in West Field, 51 a. in South Field, and 69 a. in North Field, and most was in very small scattered parcels; some consolidation had, however, taken place in North Field where one parcel was of 28 a. and another of about 14 a. In 1357-8, with the labour of 9 famuli as well as hired workers, the abbey grew wheat (30 per cent.), barley (55 per cent.), and peas and beans (15 per cent.) at King's Norton, and kept 129 sheep there; corn, malt, and wool were sold. Demesne cultivation by the abbey had probably been abandoned by 1363, and 92 a. of the estate were leased to John of Norton. (fn. 43) This leasing-out was perhaps a consequence of the Black Death, but the village itself apparently suffered no marked decline. In 1381 the poll tax was paid by 36 people, among them 5 free tenants, 4 tenants at will, a merchant, 13 servants, and 2 labourers; (fn. 44) and King's Norton's tax assessment of 10s. was reduced by only 1s. in 1445. (fn. 45) Prominent among the land-holding free tenants in the late 14th and early 15th centuries was John atte Hall of Little Stretton, whose mowers assisted the Owston famuli in 1357-8. (fn. 46) ¶In the early 16th century a large estate in King's Norton was acquired by Wyggeston Hospital, Leicester: in 1527 3 messuages and 4½ virgates (120 a. arable, 20 a. meadow, and 12 a. pasture) were conveyed to it. (fn. 47) From the late 16th century until the mid-18th the most important landowning family was the Whalleys. Ralph Whalley was already one of the leading taxpayers in 1572, and during the next two decades he acquired the manor, other houses and land, and the rectory and advowson; he died in 1601 and was succeeded by his son William (d. 1635) and his grandson Ralph. (fn. 48) The younger Ralph was probably responsible for the inclosure of the open fields, which took place between 1635 and 1637 when Whalley's land was stated to have been lately inclosed and converted to pasture; in 1637 Whalley held 16½ yardlands (fn. 51) and was also the lessee of 4½ yardlands from Wyggeston Hospital. (fn. 52) In 1656 the hospital had 3 farms, comprising 4½ yardlands and 3½ a., in King's Norton, all leased out; it was said that at the inclosure the hospital's land had been allotted in the worst part of the lordship. (fn. 53) The hospital still had 169 a. in 1847 (fn. 54) and bought more land in 1928. (fn. 55) Several 17th-century terriers and inventories provide details of pre-inclosure agrarian practice. The open fields were no longer called West, South, and North Fields, as they had been in 1360: two terriers of Wyggeston Hospital property in 1635 give the names as Brig, Scockerhill, and Middle Fields, (fn. 56) and a terrier of the glebe lands of Galby in 1638 called them Marr, Carlton Gate, and Middle Fields. (fn. 57) Each yardland is said to have had 6 cow gates and common for 40 sheep. Two inventories made in 1608 show that peas, barley, and wheat were being grown.
Although Ralph Whalley's land was said in 1637 to have been converted to pasture, the parish was not subsequently completely under grass. In 1847 there were 150 a. of arable out of 993 a. subject to tithe, (fn. 60) and in 1855, 200 a. of arable. (fn. 61) Pasture farming has, however, remained predominant to the present day. In the 19th and 20th centuries the land has been farmed by about 4 farmers and graziers. A windmill at King's Norton is first mentioned in 1514. The latest reference is in 1582 when, with the manor, it came into the possession of Ralph Whalley. It is not included in the description of his property at his death in 1601.
This Picture is taken from the church roof in 1947. The view shows Puddingbag Lane and Norton Lane.
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