Sapcote | |
---|---|
Location within Leicestershire | |
Population | 3,260 (2021) |
OS grid reference | SP490932 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Leicester |
Postcode district | LE9 |
Dialling code | 01455 |
Police | Leicestershire |
Fire | Leicestershire |
Ambulance | East Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Sapcote is a small village in south-west Leicestershire, England, in the Sparkenhoe Hundred. [1] [2] It has a population of approximately 3,260, measured at the 2021 census [3] The well-known inland scuba diving site Stoney Cove is nearby.
An early Bronze Age occupation site has been discovered here.
The Roman occupation of the site, in the hinterland of the major Roman centre at Leicester ( Ratae Corieltauvorum ), was associated with the Fosse Way which passed close by, not far from its crossing with the Watling Street. It was centred upon a Roman villa with mosaic pavements and bath house, occupied continuously during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Related sites in the district were at Mancetter, Barwell and Hinckley. [4]
The continuous occupation of the existing settlement had its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period, and lay within that province of the Middle Angles, centred in Leicestershire, the rule of which was granted by Penda of Mercia to his son Peada in AD 653. At that time Christian missionaries, led by Diuma, came into Peada's kingdom from Northumbria. [5] A 7th-century gold necklace pendant enclosing a large shield-shaped garnet, found at Sapcote in 2003, belonged to a person of social importance of that time. [6] Sapcote took its name before the Norman Conquest, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book, as Scepecote. This represented the Anglo-Saxon Scēapcot = "shed or enclosure for sheep". [7] [8]
The Church of Sapcote is dedicated to All Saints. In 1188 William Basset was the patron of the living and the first rector was Thomas Spencer in 1220. Under Norman rule, from the 12th-14th century Sapcote became a seat of the powerful Basset family, descendants of the royal justice Ralph Basset (died 1127), who held the neighbouring manor of Stoney Stanton. Ralph de Basset (died 1282) was High Sheriff of England and, possibly, the first Member of Parliament, being the first Lord to be called to the Barons Parliament by Simon de Montfort. [9] Nichols refers to the site of a castle of the Bassets having been on a slight eminence in the village, which was levelled-off during the 18th century.
After the Reformation the lordship of Sapcote was successively in the Ferrers, Grey and Tufton families. During the 19th century the main occupations of the villagers were frame-work knitting (hosiery) and quarrying. [10]
The oldest surviving building in the village is the parish church of All Saints, a building in English Decorated and Perpendicular architectural styles of the 13th to 15th centuries. [11] The Norman font is all that remains of an earlier church: [12] William Bassett appears as the patron of rector Thomas in the last decades of the 12th century. A chantry was established by Ralph de Basset in 1376 and its chapel forms the present north aisle. [13] At one time the church windows had the Basset coat of arms and devices in glass, but those of the chancel window were removed in 1788, and only a fragment now remains. At this time a stone coffin, probably of one of the Bassetts, was opened and re-interred. [14]
The Wesleyans built their first church in Sapcote in 1805. This was a successful and active congregation. The Sapcote Wesleyan Band of Hope, a Temperance group in the Hinckley circuit, was flourishing in 1880 with some 65 members. [15] In 1902 a square stone-built church was erected. The stone was quarried by the men of the church and they made such a good job of it that the church remains as one of the best buildings in Sapcote. It opened in 1905 and is a fine example of the Arts and Crafts period. [16]
In 1806 a bath house was built by John Frewen-Turner over the so-called Golden Well in Stanton Road, in an attempt to establish a Spa at Sapcote. In the building were cold and warm baths, and treatment was given for nervous, rheumatic and scrofulous complaints. [17] The building cost around £600: the beneficial effects of the waters were much approved by Dr Robert Chessher of Hinckley, [18] and Prime Ministers George Canning and the Duke of Wellington all visited the baths.
Other historical buildings include several thatched cottages, Park Farm (a timber-framed house dated 1683 in Stanton Road), the Old School in Leicester Road which was built in 1819, and the Revd. Stanley Burrough's Almshouses in Cooke's Lane, erected by Thomas Frewen in 1847 in Tudor revival style. (Stanley Burrough, MA, was Rector of Sapcote from 1779 to 1807).
Robert Bickersteth, later Bishop of Ripon, for some years was curate to his father as Rector at Sapcote. [19] The life of the village is recorded in various memoirs. [20] For many years Sapcote was home to the actor Bill Maynard, familiar to the television-viewing public as Selwyn Froggitt and as Claude Greengrass in Heartbeat .
Atherstone is a market town and civil parish in the North Warwickshire district of Warwickshire, England. Located in the far north of the county, Atherstone is on the A5 national route, and is adjacent to the border with Leicestershire which is here formed by the River Anker. It is situated between the towns of Tamworth and Nuneaton. Atherstone is the administrative centre of the North Warwickshire district, with the offices of North Warwickshire Borough Council located in the town.
John Nichols was an English printer, author and antiquary. He is remembered as an influential editor of the Gentleman's Magazine for nearly 40 years; author of a monumental county history of Leicestershire; author of two compendia of biographical material relating to his literary contemporaries; and as one of the agents behind the first complete publication of Domesday Book in 1783.
Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough. Hinckley is about halfway between Leicester and Coventry and borders Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Watling Street forms part of the Hinckley/Nuneaton border.
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Oadby is a town in the borough of Oadby and Wigston in Leicestershire, England. Oadby is a district centre 4 miles (6.4 km) south-east of Leicester on the A6 road. Leicester Racecourse is situated on the border between Oadby and Stoneygate. The University of Leicester Botanical Garden is in Oadby. Oadby had a population of 23,849 in 2011, and like its neighbour Wigston is made up of five wards. The Borough of Oadby and Wigston is twinned with Maromme in France, and Norderstedt in Germany.
This article is intended to give an overview of the history of Leicestershire.
High Cross is the name given to the crossroads of the Roman roads of Watling Street and Fosse Way on the border between Leicestershire and Warwickshire, England. A naturally strategic high point, High Cross was "the central cross roads" of Anglo-Saxon and Roman Britain. It was the site of a Romano-British settlement known as Venonae or Venonis, with an accompanying fort.
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The Diocese of Leicester is a Church of England diocese based in Leicester and including the current county of Leicestershire. The cathedral is Leicester Cathedral, where the Bishop of Leicester has his episcopal chair.
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Frisby is a hamlet and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire that lies approximately 7.3 miles (11.7 km) southeast of the city of Leicester, that is now largely a deserted medieval village. According to the University of Nottingham English Place-names project, the settlement name Frisby could mean 'farm/settlement of the Frisians'. The 2011 census for Frisby returned 5 houses and 16 residents. Often termed as Frisby by Gaulby, the modern hamlet is situated between the village of Gaulby 1 mile (1.6 km) to the southwest and Billesdon 1.94 miles (3.12 km) to the northeast. The deserted part of the ancient hamlet is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and can be located on the eastern side of the lane that leads down the hill from Gaulby Road, via Frisby House on a south-eastwards direction. The earthwork "tofts & crofts" are still visible today, with foundations for two stone built buildings noted towards the center of the site.
Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its founder and first abbot, Sexwulf, though he was himself an important figure, and later became bishop of Mercia. Medeshamstede soon acquired a string of daughter churches, and was a centre for an Anglo-Saxon sculptural style.
The Middle Angles were an important ethnic or cultural group within the larger kingdom of Mercia in England in the Anglo-Saxon period.
Horeston Grange is a suburban area of Nuneaton, Warwickshire in England.
Norton Juxta Twycross, usually known as simply "Norton"(or "Norton-Juxta"), is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Twycross, in the Hinckley and Bosworth district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. The village is part of the church parish of Appleby Magna, with the vicar based in Appleby. In 1931 the parish had a population of 249.
Richard Basset was a royal judge and sheriff during the reign of King Henry I of England. His father was also a royal justice. In about 1122 Basset married the eventual heiress of another justice; the marriage settlement has survived. In 1129–30 Basset was co-sheriff of eleven counties. Basset and his wife founded a monastic house in 1125 from their lands, which before the donation were equivalent to 15 knight's fees.
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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Leicester, the county town of Leicestershire, in England.
Thomas Staveley was a Stuart antiquary, magistrate, anti-Papist, and Church historian. He spent most of his life researching the antiquities of his home county, Leicestershire.