Cossington, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Cossington, a village and a parish in Leicestershire, on the rivers Soar and Wreak, and on the M.R., adjacent to the Fosse Way, 1 mile S of Sileby railway station, and 2 miles SE of Mount Sorrel, with a post office under Leicester; money order office, Sileby; telegraph office, Sileby (R.S.) Acreage, 1558; population, 371. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net yearly value, £400 with residence. The church is Early English, with a square tower, has a piscina and stalls, and is very good.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Leicestershire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Cossington All Saints | |
| Hundred | East Goscote | |
| Poor Law union | Barrow-upon-Soar |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish registers date from the year 1544, and are in good order.
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Cossington:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1545-1916 | 1754-1939 | 1544-1931 | 1544-1991 |
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is an ancient building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 5 bells, four dated 1619 and one added in 1914: there are nine stained windows: in the chancel is a trefoil-headed piscina and three crocketed sedilia, and in the north wall, within a recessed feathered arch, with triangular crocketed head, is a panelled altar tomb with quartered shields of arms, to Matthew Knightley D.D. a former rector, ob. 9 June, 1561: there is also a monument with arms and crest to William Staveley, a former rector, ob 14 August, 1652, and Anne (Babington) his wife; and there are other memorials to the Staveley and Babington families, and two recumbent effigies in stone, possibly priests: the communion plate includes a chalice dated 1654: the oak chancel screen, sometime in the rectory garden, was restored and replaced in 1897: there is a tablet containing the names of parishioners who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918: the church was restored in 1865: there are 200 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Cossington from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cossington (All Saints))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Cossington are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Leicestershire newspapers online: