Wigston Magna, Leicestershire

Historical Description

Wigston Magna, a town and a civil and ecclesiastical parish in Leicestershire. The town stands 4 miles SSE of Leicester, and has two stations, called Wigston Junction and Wigston South, on the M.R. It has recently undergone much improvement, and carries on considerable trade in framework-knitting, &c. The M.R. Company have established some engine sheds here which provide employment for 300 workpeople. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Leicester, and a post, money order, and telegraph office at South Wigston. There are working-men's clubs at Wigston and South Wigston, and a Conservative club at Wigston. The manor belongs to the baronet family of Halford. Wigston Hall is a fine mansion standing in well-timbered grounds. There are two churches, a circumstance which in former times gave the parish the name of Wigston-two-Steeples. The church of St Wolstan is an ancient building of the Decorated period, consisting of nave and a western tower with spire. All Saints' Church is a building of rubble granite in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and a tower with a lofty crocheted spire. There are Calvinistic, Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels at Wigston, and a Wesleyan chapel and four mission halls at South Wigston. The parish includes South Wigston, and comprises 3119 acres; population, 7013. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough; gross value, £230 with residence. Patron, alternately the Haberdashers' Company and Christ's Hospital, London.

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.

Church Records

Findmypast, in association with the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland, have the following parish records online for Wigston Magna:

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Wigston Magna from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wigston Magna (All Saints))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Wigston Magna 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