Swithland, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Swithland, a parish, with a village, in Leicestershire, 2¼ miles SW of Mountsorrel, 4 WSW of Sileby station on the main line of the M.R., and 6 S from Loughborough. It has a post office under Loughborough; money order and telegraph office, Woodhouse Eaves. Acreage, 1145; population, 213. The manor, with Swithland Hall, a fine mansion standing on an eminence amidst a beautiful park, and most of the land, belongs to the Earl of Lanesborough. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £200 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is an ancient building of stone in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, S aisle, private chapel of the Danvers-Butler family, Earls of Lanesborough, and an embattled western tower. There is a Wesleyan chapel. Excellent blue slate is found in this parish in considerable quantities.
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 | Swithland St. Leonard | |
Hundred | West Goscote | |
Poor Law union | Barrow-upon-Soar |
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 Swithland:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1700-1916 | 1754-1817 | 1700-1931 | 1700-1991 |
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Swithland from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Swithland (St. Leonard))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Swithland 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: