Smeeton Westerby, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Smeeton Westerby, a township and a parish formed in 1852 out of the parish of Kibworth Beauchamp, in Leicestershire, 1 mile S of Kibworth station on the M.R. main line, 1 NE of the Grand Union Canal, and 5½ miles NW of Market Harborough. There is a post office under Leicester; money order and telegraph office, Kibworth Harcourt. Acreage, 1391; population, 342. There is a parish council consisting of five members. The canal here burst its banks in Sept., 1865, and was emptied for a distance of 10 miles. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net value, £82. Patron, the Rector of Kibworth. The church was built in 1849, and is a building of stone in the Decorated style. There is a Baptist chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Leicestershire | |
| Civil parish | Kibworth Beauchamp | |
| Hundred | Gartree | |
| Poor Law union | Harborough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Smeeton Westerby:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1852-1916 | 1866-1940 | 1853-1931 | 1852-1990 |
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Smeeton Westerby from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Smeeton-Westerby)
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Smeeton Westerby 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: