Belton, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Belton, a small town and a parish in Leicestershire, 4 miles NW from Swannington station on the M.R., 4 N from Whitwich station on the L. & N.W.R., and 7 WNW of Loughborough. The parish statistics include the liberty of Grace-Dieu. It has a post office under Loughborough, money order and telegraph office, Shepshed. Acreage, 2345; population, 671. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; gross yearly value, £198 with residence. The church is a fine old edifice, with tower and spire, and contains a monument of Rocsia de Verdun, the founder of Graee-Dieu nunnery. There are General Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist chapels. A large horse fair is held here on the second Monday after Trinity Sunday.
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 | Belton St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | West Goscote | |
Poor Law union | Loughborough |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538, and is in good condition.
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Belton:
Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
---|---|---|---|
1538-1907 | 1754-1940 | 1538-1838 | 1539-1878 |
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is an ancient building of stone in the later period of the Early English style (late 13th century), consisting of chancel, nave of four bays with clerestory, aisles, south porch and a western tower with lofty spire, containing a clock and 3 bells, the former having been renewed as a memorial to parishioners who fell in the Great War; the bells have been rehung: the nave arcades have each four arches supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals, and the oak roof is carried on angel corbels of stone, handsomely carved: the carved oak chancel screen, a work of the Perpendicular period, was thoroughly restored in 1894 as a memorial to Miss Louisa Blakeney: there are three piscinae, one in the chancel and the others at the east end of the aisles: on the north side of the chancel is a niche, probably used as a credence: in the two windows of the north aisle are remains of ancient painted glass, representing Edward III. and his queen, and the interior retains also a few ancient monumental tablets and tombstones with inscriptions, principally to the Toone family: in the north aisle is the restored upper slab of an altar tomb found in the chancel during the restoration, part of the tomb of Roesia de Verdun, foundress of Grace Dieu Priory, in this parish: at the east end of the south aisle is a memorial window to the late Charles Thompson M.D. erected by his widow, the lady of the manor: in the church was buried Francis Beaumont, justice of the Common Pleas, ob. 22 April, 1593; the church was restored about 1850 and in 1877: the old brick porch has since been replaced by one of stone, and the old pulpit by one of Caen stone with Purbeck marble pillars: there are 350 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 Belton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Belton (St. John the Baptist))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Belton 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: