Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LUTTERWORTH

LUTTERWORTH, a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Leicester. The town stands on a declivity adjoining the river Swift, 2½ miles E of Watling-street at the boundary with Warwick, 3¼ SE of Ullesthorpe r. station, and 7½ NNE of Rugby; is noted as the place where Wycliffe lived and ministered; consists of regular streets, paved and clean; has, in recent years, undergone great improvement; is a seat of petty sessions, and a polling-place; and has a head post office,‡ a banking office, a police station, two chief inns, a townhall and market-house, a church, four dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institute, a parochial library, an endowed school for boys, an endowed school for girls, alms houses, and a workhouse. The endowed charities, including the sums for the schools and the alms houses, amount to £637 a year. The town hall and markethouse stands in High-street; was erected in 1836; is a neat stuccoed brick structure, with a tetrastyle Ionic portico; and is occasionally used for public meetings, concerts, and exhibitions. The church is ancient; was restored in 1740; comprises nave, aisles, and chancel, with a lofty tower; contains the pulpit in which Wycliffe preached, his portrait, his dining-table, and his vestment; and, excepting the porch and the tower, was restored in 1867-9, under the care of G. G. Scott, at a cost of £7,700. A weekly market is held on Thursday; a large sheep market, on the Thursday after Old Michaelmas; cattle fairs, on 2 April, Holy Thursday, and 16 Sept.: and a hiring-fair, on the Friday after 16 Sept.—The parish comprises 1,890 acres. Real property, £10,749. Pop. in 1851,2,446; in 1861,2,289. Houses, 513. The manor belonged to the Verduns; passed to the Sackvilles and the Astleys; and belongs now to Earl Denbigh. An hospital was founded, about 1,200, by Roesia de Verdu n; and became a seat of the Suckburghs. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Petersborough. Value, £585. * Patron, the Crown. The sub-district and the district are conterminate; and they contain the parishes of Lutterworth, Cottesbach, Shawell, Catthorpe, Swinford, Misterton, South Kilworth, North Kilworth, Kimcote-with-Walton, Bruntingthorpe, Arnesby, Peatling-Magna, PeatlingParva, Gilmorton, Bitteswell, Willoughby-Waterless, Ashby-Magna, Ashby-Parva, Dunton-Bassett, Broughton-Astley, Frowlesworth, Leire, and most of Claybrooke and Knaptoft, electorally in Leicester, the parish of Willey, and parts of Monks-Kirby and Claybrooke, electorally in Warwick, and the parish of Welford, electorally in Northampton. Acres, 59,031. Poorrates in 1863, £9,431. Pop. in 1851,16,194; in 1861, 51,515. Houses, 3,636. Marriages in 1863,86; births, 484, -of which 43 were illegitimate; deaths, 307,-of which 92 were at ages under 5 years, and 10 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60,1,033; births, 4,427; deaths, 3,029. The places of worship, in 1851, were 29 of the Church of England, with 7,360 sittings; 8 of Independents, with 2,128 s.; 8 of Baptists, with 1,523 s.; 2 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 210 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 185 s.; 2 of Latter Day Saints, with 80 s.; and 1 of Jews, with 30 s. The schools were 24 public day schools, with 975 scholars; 31 private day schools, with 603 s.; 32 Sunday schools, with 1,790 s.; and 4 evening schools for adults, with 75 s. The workhouse stands at the end of the old wood market in Lutterworth; was erected in 1840; and has capacity for 200 inmates.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Lutterworth CP/AP       Lutterworth SubD       Lutterworth RegD/PLU       Leicestershire AncC
Place: Lutterworth

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