Kirby Bellars, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Kirby Bellars, a township and a parish, with a pleasant village, in Leicestershire, on the river Wreak, and on the Syston and Peterborough branch of the M.R., with a station at Asfordy, 2½ miles WSW of Melton Mowbray. Post town and money order office, Melton Mowbray; telegraph office, Asfordy. Area, 2754 acres; population, 258. The manor belongs to the Seddon family. Kirby Park was a hunting seat of Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., and is now occupied by a farmer. A college for a warden and twelve priests was founded in the parish by Roger Beller in 1319, and was converted into an Augustinian priory by Alice Beller in 1359. Fossil bones of elephants and other animals were found in 1821. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £103. The church of St Peter is a handsome building of stone in the Gothic style, and has a western tower with lofty spire. There is an ancient stone cross in the churchyard.
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 | Kirby-Bellars St. Peter | |
Hundred | Framland | |
Poor Law union | Melton-Mowbray |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1713.
We have transcribed Phillimore Marriages volume 2, which includes Kirby Bellars 1713-1837
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Kirby Bellars:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1713-1812 | 1754-1939 | 1714-1836 | 1713-1812 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter is a spacious building of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, south aisle, south porch and a western tower, with lofty spire, containing 5 bells (restored in 1928), dated respectively 1614, 1755, 1617, 1738 and the tenor 1614: there is a memorial window to the Rev. Edward Manners, a former rector of Goadby Marwood, d. 21 Dec. 1856, and an ancient monument to Sir Roger de Beler and his wife, the date of which is now illegible: there is an aumbry and a piscina in the south aisle, and sedilia, a piscina and an aumbry in the chancel: a new communion table, cloth and hangings were provided in 1898: the church was restored in 1889, at a cost of £960, and affords 200 sittings. In the churchyard is an ancient stone cross.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Kirby Bellars from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kirby-Bellars (St. Peter))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Kirby Bellars 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: