Brooksby is a deserted village and former
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
, now in the parish of
Hoby with Rotherby, in the
Melton district, in
Leicestershire, England. It was the ancestral home of the
Villiers family
Villiers ( ) is an aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. Over time, various members of the Villiers family were made knights, baronets, and peers. Peerages held by the Villiers family include the dukedoms of Buckingham (1623–1687) and Cleve ...
. Brooksby and surrounding villages were served by
Brooksby railway station
Brooksby railway station was a former station serving the villages of Brooksby, Hoby and Rotherby in Leicestershire. The station was situated at a level crossing on the Brooksby to Hoby road. History
The station opened in 1846 on the Syston ...
. In 1931 the parish had a population of 69.
The name 'Brooksby' means 'farm/settlement of Brok' or 'farm/settlement with a brook'.
On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished to form Hoby with Rotherby.
Brooksby Hall
Brooksby Hall is a late16th-century manor house on 3.2 square kilometres (800 acres) of land between Leicester and Melton Mowbray. Situated northeast of Leicester, the hall and the neighbouring church of St Michael and All Angels are the last re ...
, a 16th-century manor house, and the
Church of St Michael and All Angels, Brooksby, are all that remains of a village that was cleared to enable sheep to be grazed. The church was once the living for Henry Gregg who was married to the writer
Mary Kirby.
[Ann B. Shteir, ‘Kirby, Mary (1817–1893)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200]
accessed 15 September 2014
Today the hall has conference and banqueting facilities.
Brooksby Melton College offers apprenticeships and further education training courses in animal care, countryside, equine, fisheries, and land based service engineering.
References
External links
BrooksbyRetrieved 26 August 2013
Brooksby Hall
Villages in Leicestershire
Deserted medieval villages in Leicestershire
Former civil parishes in Leicestershire
Borough of Melton
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