Bilstone is a small village and former
civil parish, now in the parish of
Shackerstone, in the
Hinckley and Bosworth district of
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
, England. It is approximately west from the
county town
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
and city of
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
, and east from
Twycross and the
A444 road. In 1931 the parish had a population of 68.
The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Bildr' or 'farm/settlement on a corner or angle'.
A half mile to the south, on Gibbet Lane, is a
gibbet post, dating from 1800. The post was close to a contemporary murder. At the west of the village is a Grade II
listed early 19th-century farmhouse. At the north of the village on Mill Lane is a disused 18th-century
watermill, with adjoined 19th-century buildings. The mill was operational in the 1950s; today its machinery doesn't exist.
Bilstone is listed in the ''
Domesday Book'' as in the Guthlaxton
Hundred of Leicestershire, with two
ploughlands, three households and three
freemen. In 1066
Countess Godiva was
Lord, she remaining as such in 1086, also becoming
Tenant-in-chief to
William I.
In 1870-1872 Bilston was a
township in the parish of
Norton Juxta Twycross with a population of 116 and 25 houses.
[ Wilson, John Marius; ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (1870–72)]
In 1866 Bilstone became a parish in its own right, on 1 April 1935 the parish was abolished and merged with Shackerstone.
John Grundy, Sr., land surveyor and civil engineer, was born in Bilstone c. 1696.
[Skempton, Sir Alec et al. (2002). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: Vol 1: 1500 to 1830'', Thomas Telford, p. 276. ]
References
External links
*
“Bilstone” Genuki
{{authority control
Villages in Leicestershire
Former civil parishes in Leicestershire
Shackerstone