Billesdon (St. John the Baptist)

BILLESDON (St. John the Baptist), a parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Gartree, S. division of the county of Leicester, 9 miles (E. by S.) from Leicester, on the road to Uppingham; containing, with the chapelries of Goadby and Rolleston, 878 inhabitants. An annual fair, chiefly for pleasure, is held in April, but is not much attended: there are a few stocking-frames employed in the parish. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £14. 10.; net income, £279, arising from 156 acres of land; patron, H. Greene, Esq.; impropriators, R. Linney, Esq., and others. The church has been lately repewed. There are chapels of ease at Goadby and Rolleston; and a place of worship for Baptists. A school built in 1650, by William Sharp, has since been endowed with property producing about £23 per annum. The poor law union of Billesdon comprises 36 parishes and places, and contains a population of 6810. Here are some traces of a Roman camp, fortified with a deep ditch and a high rampart.