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Belgrave (St. Peter)

BELGRAVE (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Barrow-upon-Soar, partly in the hundred of West Goscote, but chiefly in that of East Goscote, N. division of the county of Leicester, 1¾ mile (N. N. E.) from Leicester; containing, with the chapelries of Birstal and South Thurmaston, 2609 inhabitants. During the civil wars, Belgrave was the scene of many skirmishes between the royalist and parliamentarian forces; and a field adjoining the village is called "Camp close," from part of the army under Prince Rupert having been there encamped, in 1645, at the siege of Leicester. The parish is situated on the road to Manchester, and intersected by the Leicester canal, the navigable river Soar, and the Midland railway. It comprises 1396 acres of arable and pasture land; the soil is in general light, and the substrata are chiefly gravel, sand, marl, and clay. The inhabitants are principally employed by the hosiers of Leicester in the manufacture of stockings and socks, particularly the latter. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £13. 6. 8.; net income, £146; patron, the Bishop of Lichfield, to whom, in right of his see, belongs the rectory, worth about £1150 per annum. The glebe of the vicarage is 25 acres, with a house erected in 1825. The church, a handsome and spacious structure, is chiefly in the decorated style of English architecture, with a square embattled tower, and a fine Norman doorway at the south entrance. At South Thurmaston is a separate incumbency. There are places of worship for Baptists, Ranters, and Wesleyans. On the inclosure of the parish, a common containing 47 acres was set apart for the town cottagers not having a right of common; and 23 acres, with several cottages and a house, were vested in trustees for the repair of the church. Here are traces of the Roman fosse-road leading to Newark and Lincoln.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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