Brooksby, Leicestershire
Historical Description
Brooksby, a parish in Leicestershire, on the river Wreak, and on the Syston and Peterborough branch of the M.R., 3 miles E of the Fosse Way, and 5¾ WSW of Melton-Mowbray. It has a station on the railway, and its post town is Leicester; money order office, Rearsby; telegraph office at Brooksby station. Acreage, 867; population, 42. Brooksby Hall was formerly the seat of the Villierses, and was the birthplace of the first Villiers Duke of Buckingham. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net value, £200. The church, a fine building of stone in the Decorated style, contains monuments of the Villierses.
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 | Brookesby St. Michael | |
| Hundred | East Goscote | |
| 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 1620.
We have transcribed Phillimore Marriages volume 2, which includes Brooksby 1767-1812
Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Brooksby:
| Baptisms | Banns | Marriages | Burials |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1768-1916 | 1767-1925 | 1776-1991 |
Churches
Church of England
St. Michael (parish church)
The church of St. Michael is a building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, north aisle, north and south porches and an embattled western tower with pinnacles and spire (restored in 1620) and containing one bell, dated 1749: on the north side of the chancel is a mural monument of white marble, with shafts of grey marble and standing effigies, to Sir Williams Villiers bart. and M.P. for the county, the last male representative of the elder branch of the Villiers family, d. 27 Feb. 1711, and Anne (Potts), his wife, d. 31 July, 1711: the arms of some early members of the same ancient family appear in the windows: the church was restored in 1879 by Ernest Chaplin esq, of Brooksby Hall, at a cost of £800, when a new roof of pitch pine was fixed, the interior reseated and a handsome carved oak pulpit on a stone base introduced: there are 100 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 Brooksby from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1848 (Brookesby (St. Michael))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Leicestershire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Brooksby are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- 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: