The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester
John Nichols Vol III Part 1, Pub by SR Publishers Ltd in collaboration with Leicestershire
County Council
Largest of the English Histories of 18 C. Originally in 4 vols, each then divided into two parts.
Issued 1795 to 1815 at irregular intervals. 1808 fire destroyed nearly all remaining stock of
the 6 parts then published.. There were never more than 200 compete sets in existence. The
rise in the value of copies of the book, owing to its scarcity, began in his own life-time.
Nichols wife came from Leicestershire but he only visited it a few times. His history came from
correspondence and hired reporters and was paid for by subscription.
East Goscote Hundred
Called Osseberie, Osferdebie and Offerdebie (probably from Eyefordby) and named for the
little river Eye near which it stands., bounded on the south by Kirkby Beler and Frisby, West
by Hoby, North by Welby, east by Sisonby. 3 miles from Melton, the nearest market town, 13
from Leicester. Situated in the vale of the Wreak. The Wreake originates in Holwell and
passes through Welby enters the Eye here and gives name to rest of the river.
Ecclesiastical division of the county Asfordby is within the deanery of Goscote.
Ralph Framen held for the King in the Domesday Survey. Worth 10 shillings. Contained 12
ploughlands, two mills of 8/- value and 20 acres of meadow. Given by Robert Earl of Mellent
and Leicester to St Mary de Castro of Leicester. Then to abbey of St Mary de Pratis. Sir
Francis Gregory of Asfordby was steward to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester 1240.
Itinerary of 1280, Asfordby, Dalby, Saxelby and Siwouldby referred to as one village.
1329 Edward III passed Asfordby to Henry de Burghersh, bishop of Lincoln.
Book of fifteenths and tenths 1416 Asfordby rated at £3.15s.
1434 John Boteler, outlaw, possessed lands in Asfordby
Priory of Kirkby Beler had some small posessions in this parish for which paid Bishop of
Lincoln 11s
pa. Passed in "fee simple" to William Silverwood, Yeoman, June 23, 1609.
Bishop of Lincoln conveyed to Edward VI 26.9.1547 with other manors in Leicestershire in
return for other properties. The Bishopric became poor as a consequence the Parish was very
poorly provided for.
1564 48 families in Asfordby.
Freeholders in 1630 William Gregory, gent. John Morrice, William Humerston, Thomas
Walton, Martin Allet, John Silverwood, Thomas Gamble and Henry Austin. In an act passed in
1761 for enclosing the open fields in Asfordby, containing 1800 acres, Thomas Smith Esq.
Described as lord of the manor and proprietor of considerable part of the lands, grounds in
said fields and of right of common therein; Andrew Burnaby, clerk, as patron and rector of the
rectory and church of Asfordby, entitled to all great and small tithes; ; and all other rectorial
and vicarial dues arising within the said parish, and to the glebe and other land, and to right of
common in the said fields.
1796 .village described as large, having an excellent road made through it. Present Lord of
Manor Rev Thomas-Beaumont Burnaby, MA of St John’s College Cambridge, also rector and
owner of the advowson, worth £400 pa
Rev Burnaby provided John Nichols with much information for his History of Leicestershire..
He married Catherine Clark, daughter of William Abney, esq of Measham field, a lady of
property, and he built a very spacious, comfortable rectory.
The town cross remains, elevated on 3 steps and having a shaft 12 ft long, .
The Parish Register beings in 1564 and averages over 20 years at that time baptisms 8;
burials near 5; marriages near 2. From 1771 to 1790 baptisms 11 1/2; burials nearly 8;
maririages 2 1/4, About 73 familes in the parish
The church dedicated to All Saints contains a neat tower with four pinnacles, on which is a
very elegant proportionate spire, octagon with beautiful open Gothic windows, and crockets
regular to the top. The south porch has a handsome arched doorway. The south transept
window is very large and prettily ramified; pinnacles and crosses complete to terminate the
church; which last is low and rather heavy.
The north aisle separated from the chancel by a small neat screen. The ground floor of the
tower and part of the south west end of the church are parted off for a day school.
Against the west side of the north cross, interred into the outside wall, is the extremely rude
figure with a crucifix, aft bight. A Mr Burton, 18th C antiquary notices only one coat of arms Barry of fix, Arrogant and Azure, Grey; fig 4.
The rood loft stairs remains; and some stone seats in the chancel.
In Lincoln Register an instrument for uniting churches of Asfordby and Siwoldby (Shouldby);
and Shouldby was for some time considered to be within the parish. The chapel of that hamlet
has long been desecrated. A part of the chapel wall remains in the upper house of that
hamlet. At time of survey considered part of Saxelby.
Martin Hill, clerk, presented by Lord Willoughby to the rectory of Asserby in Leicestershire,
recorded to have been the first preacher at the Reformation from Popery of the Protestant
religion in that county..
Family tree of Gregory of Asfordby from 1292 to 1619.
Rectors
Patrons
Richard de Wendour, subdeacon, 1230
Bishop of Lincoln
Alardus de Arundel 1231
ditto
William de Fulebec 1233
ditto
Richard Brokesby, 1535-
Lord Willoughby of Eresby
Martin Hill about 1540
ditto
Christopher Bardsey, 1562
ditto
Francis Hill, 1621
Sir Percival Willoughby of Wollaton, knt
ditto 1642
Sir Francis Willoughby
Hugo Burneby, June 25, 1666
William Boteler, esq
Andrew Burnaby Feb.12, 1693; died Jan. 1, 17223
Hugh Burneby
Henry Wright, June 29, 1723
Andrew Burnaby, Gent
John Brown, Feb. 20, 1724
ditto
Andrew Burnaby, MA July 11, 1726
Maurice Cam, getn.
Thomas Beaumont Burnaby, May 17, 1777
Himself the patron
The Canals of the East Midlands by Charles Hadfield pub David & Charles.
Melton Mowbray Navigation
1777 Melton Mowbray inhabitants petitioned successfully for the Erewash Canal. By 1780 the
Erewash and Loughborough Canals were so successful that it was proposed that the Wreake
be made navigable. £6000 was subscribed the day books opened.
1780 the Leicester and Nottingham Journal suggested extending the Loughborough
Navigation to Leicester and to Melton Mowbray for the carriage of Derbyshire coal.
In 1785 high road charges encouraged the extension of the Loughborough canal.
There were various bills between 1786 and 1791 which were defeated. After the defeat of one
in 1789 the Leicester Journal remarked that Melton Mowbray was paying 18d per
hundredweight for coal by road - by waterway this would be reduced to 9d.
In 1790 the Wreake was surveyed by Christopher Staveley under the engineer William
Jessop who built many other canals in Leicestershire together. In 1791 an Act was passed in
Parliament allowing the Rivers eye and Wreake to be made navigable to barges from the
junction with the Leicester Navigation at Turnwater Meadow to Melton Mowbray and £25000
was raised in £100 shares. The Clerk was Charles Latham, solicitor in Melton Mowbray. By
10 January 1794 the Wreake was navigable as far as Rearsby. Full navigation to Melton
probably began in 1797. The length of the canal was 14¼ miles, 12 broad locks 91ft x 15ft
were built to overcome the rise of 71ft 2in. The cost was c. £45000 it could take barges 86ft
by 14ft 6in..
1793 two Acts of Parliament allowed the extension of the Oakham Canal to Melton. The
Oakham Canal was between Melton Mowbray and Oakham. Work was begun after the Act of
1793 and if was fully opened in c. 1803 at a cost of between £65000-£70,000 with a length of
15¼ miles, 19 locks and was navigable by barges 72ft by 14ft 2in.
The navigation seems to have been profitable for in 1832 when other canal companies were
reducing their tolls coal into the Wreake was excluded. In 1838 40,001 tons of coal was
carried on the canal. There was much competition from other canals, principally the Grantham
Canal, and there were price wars.
In 1843, due to toll reductions by Oakham and Melton Mowbray Navigation companies, most
corn grown between Colsterworth and Stamford was sent away by those canals.
Railways brought the decline of trade for the canals. 19 April 1845 the Oakham canal
company agreed to sell its business to the Midland Railway for £26,000. The railway Act for
the Syston to Peterborough line and thatfor the sale of the canal and its abandonment
followed on 27 July 1846 and sale completed 29 October 1847. The railway was opened from
Syston to Melton on 1 September 1846 and to Oakham on 1 May 1848. It affected traffic on
the Melton Mowbray Navigation directly and began that company’s rapid decline despite aid
from other canal companies. The Midland Railway Company was not interested in buying.
The Melton Navigation Company closed on 1 August 1877.
Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society.
Asfordby is a Scandinavian place name, those places with the ending "by" denoting a
church(?)
For 40 years in the 9th century, around 870AD, the Danes held land from East Anglia to North
Yorkshire and west as far as Watling Street (today’s A5). The territory was recovered by the
English in a campaign 917-918AD. Wreake is an Old Norse word meaning "twisted". Eye is
from the Old English "ea", meaning "river"
N Pevsner - Buildings of England, Leicestershire and Rutland
Asfordby Old Hall, Jacobean brick house, alterations c 1875 by R W Johnson.
Rectory 1808
At the time of the Domesday Book (1086AD) Asfordby had 2 mills. In this century there was
only one water mill and the whell was removed for scrap in 1932. There is a picture of the
wheel in Leicestershire Watermills by Norman Ashton, P102.
Enclosure Act, Asfordby 1 GeoIII 1761 - Leics Records Office
Railway Midland - Asfordby Station close 2.3.1951
Victorian History of Leicestershire vols 1-3
Between 1724 and 1800 Asfordby received one of 19 endowed charity schools in 1769
endowned by Lincoln Diocese.
Domesday population 2 villeins. This is all, there is no report of knights, priests of freemen.
1377 Poll Tax in the East Goscote Hundred pop 158 taxpayers 139
diocesan Pop Returns 1563, Deanery of Goscote, 48 households.
Liber Cleri 1603 Communicants and Recusants 200 Communicants
Hearth Tax Michaelmas 1670 58 Households paying 25, exempt 83.
Ecclesiastical Census 1676 pop 221
Pop table 1801-1951 Asfordby Anciant Parish and Civil Parish
1801
364
1811
367
1821
424
1831
467
1841
481
1851
467
1861
485
1871
513
1881
539
1891
717
1901
1062
1911
1336
1921
1409
1931
2003
1951
2332
NB 1901 increase due to the erection of blast furnaces at Holwell Works
1911 erection of steel foundry and extension to iron smelting furnaces
1931 Houses for workmen and residential development
1935 part of Melton Urban District Council moved into Asfordby Civic Parish
1936 part of Welby Civic Parish transferred to Asfordby Civic Parish
Last days of steam by John M C Healy
Asfordby Station opened 1.9.1846, closed 2.4.1951
Leicestershire and Rutland Village Book
All Saints 13th C local limestone, Tower 14th Century, spire 15th century
Old Hall haunted by a uniformed soldier.
1930’s a lorry delivering flour to the bakers backe dinto the cross shattering the shaft
The only public transport, apart from the railway, in 1900’s was a horse drawn brake owned
by the baker. It was used for weddings and once for a honeymoon trip round Belvoir Castle.
Captains Close School built August 1971
ca. 1880 Holwell Works became an iron foundry - Houses and School built
1962 end of blast furnaces.
1940 landmine fell in the Valley with no damage
1941 German plane bombed the concrete road in the Valley. 4 men on the way to work were
killed, blast damaged Valley houses and killed a small girl in bed.
Medieval bridge in Station Lane