Belvoir, Leicestershire

Historical Description

Belvoir, formerly an extra-parochial tract, now a parish and the head of a petty sessional division in Leicestershire, on the verge of the county, near the Grantham Canal, 7 miles W by S of Grantham, and 2 S of Bedmile station on the G.N. and L. & N.W. Junction. Post town, Grantham; money order and telegraph office, Knipton. Area, 715 acres; population, 144. Belvoir Castle is the seat of the Duke of Rutland, and one of the most magnificent structures in the kingdom. The original building was a fortress erected soon after the Conquest by Robert de Todeni, standard-bearer to William, and was several times burned down or otherwise destroyed. The present pile is a modern, castellated, hollow quadrangle, restored by Wyatt, measuring 252 feet along the east front, and containing a noble apartment called the Regent's Gallery, 127 feet long, filled with the choicest productions of art. It stands on an isolated and perhaps artificial hill, and commands a view of 30 miles over a picturesque extensive vale, called the Vale of Belvoir. The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., visited it in 1814, and Crabbe the poet lived in it as chaplain. A great fire destroyed part of it in 1816, including a famous picture gallery, with damage estimated at £120,000. A priory of black monks stood near it, founded about 1076 by Robert de Todeni, and was given at the dissolution to Thomas, Earl of Rutland, and Robert Turwhit.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Belvoir from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Belvoir)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.

Maps

Online maps of Belvoir 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:

• Leicester Chronicle
• Leicester Journal
• Leicester Daily Mercury
• Leicestershire Mercury
• Leicester Mail