Buckminster is a village and
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 authority ...
within the
Melton 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, which includes the two villages of Buckminster and
Sewstern
Sewstern is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Buckminster, in the Melton (borough), Melton district of east Leicestershire, England. It lies just south of Buckminster, with which it shares a primary school, situated between ...
. The total population of the civil parish was 356 at the 2011 census. It is on the
B676 road New
B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in ...
, 10 miles east of
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...
and 4 miles west of the
A1 at
Colsterworth
Colsterworth is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, less than half a mile (0.8 km) west of the A1, about south of Grantham, and north-west of Stamford. The village with the hamlet of Woolsthorp ...
.
The parish is located in the north-east of the county, on the border with
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
. Nearby places are
Coston,
Wymondham
Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich, England, Norwich off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through ...
and
Sproxton in Leicestershire, and
Stainby
__NOTOC__
Stainby is a hamlet in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated west from the A1 road, east from the Viking Way and the Leicestershire border, and south from Grantham.
Stainby is nominally in the civil ...
over the border in Lincolnshire. Sewstern Lane, which forms the parish boundary and the county boundary with Lincolnshire is part of the modern
Viking Way
The Viking Way is a long distance trail in England running between the Humber Bridge in North Lincolnshire and Oakham in Rutland.
History
The route was officially opened on Sunday 5 September 1976 at Tealby, by the Deputy Chairman of Lincoln ...
. The village is noted for its autumnal colours, with many trees in the grounds and on the perimeter of Buckminster Park, on the village green, behind the houses of The Crescent and along the edges of roads and fields.
Housing
Buckminster's houses reflect its history as an estate village. They include a terrace of 17 houses built in the 1810s (The Row), an attractive circlet of semi-detached properties standing in large gardens (The Crescent) and two short terraces built in 1935 and 1948 on Sproxton Road and Coston Road. There are also a small number of detached 19th-century houses, some with origins as farmhouses. A few of the older properties are built in
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
, but the predominant building material is brick. All the commercial and residential properties in the village are owned by
Buckminster Estates
William John Manners Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart DL (3 March 1859 – 22 November 1935) in the Peerage of Scotland, was also a Baronet (cr.1793) in the Baronetage of Great Britain, Lord Lieutenant of Rutland (1881–1906), and Justice of the ...
, who are linked with the Tollemache family who live in Buckminster Park: the former home of the
Earl of Dysart
Earl of Dysart (pronounced ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1643 and has been held continuously since then by descendants of the 1st Earl, William Murray.
Creation
The title was created in 1643 for William Murray, ...
.
The village pub is called the Tollemache Arms.
Buckminster Park
Buckminster Park stands to the north-east of the village. It was never a medieval hunting park, but has its origins in a lease of land in 1532 near the former manor house. Buckminster Hall, a large
Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
-style property, was built within the park in the 1790s for
Sir William Manners. This was demolished in 1951. It was replaced in 1965 by a Neo-
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
house, by Wills, Trenwith and Wills, known as Buckminster Park. The large stables, built around a courtyard for the 9th earl of Dysart in the 1880s, stand to the south of the Park, and have been converted to housing.
The parish church of St John the Baptist was built during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and was restored and improved in 1883. It is a Grade I listed building.
History
The village's name means 'the monastery church of Bucca'.
Buckminster stands 500 feet above sea level, with no higher ground between the village and
The Wash
The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk, England, Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and both border the North Sea. One of Britain's broadest estuaries, it i ...
, on the east coast, 37 miles away. A
beacon
A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...
was built during the
Anglo-Spanish War of the 16th century, as part of a chain of beacons stretching from the Lincolnshire coast. Repairs were ordered in 1625, after the countries returned to war, when a 24-hour watch had to be maintained.
For most of its history Buckminster has been a small, agricultural village. Its character changed from the 1790s, when
Sir William Manners decided to move to the village and built Buckminster Hall. Two large terraces were constructed between 1795 and 1820, known as Bull Row and Cow Row. These were let to tenants who worked across Sir William's estate in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.
Sir William's mother was Lady Louisa Talmash, who became the 7th Countess of Dysart in 1821, following the death of her brother. Sir William became the heir to the earldom, took the surname Talmash (later Tollemache) and the courtesy title Lord Huntingtower.
His great grandson, the 9th earl of Dysart, who inherited in 1878, spent heavily on village improvements. These included the demolition of the Bull Row terrace and its replacement with higher-quality semi-detached family homes, the creation of reading rooms in 1886, which became Buckminster Institute in 1898 (the forerunner to the Village Hall), the restoration of St John the Baptist church and the building of a new village school.
Land to the south and east of Buckminster village was quarried for
ironstone
Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...
between 1948 and 1968 on a rolling
opencast basis, with the fields returned to agricultural use within a season. The result can be seen in the landscape, with the fields in the quarried area, including around the school, lying some 7 to 15 feet below the level of other roads. The reinstatement of the land encouraged a switch from pastoral to arable farming.
An underground nuclear monitoring bunker opened in 1961. It was decommissioned in 1991, and has subsequently been restored as a heritage site.
The early 21st century has seen further changes, including the renovation of old buildings to create offices and the installation of fast
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
.
Church and Mausoleum
The village name suggests there may have been a
minster church here, but no architectural or documentary evidence of one survives. The present
Church of St John the Baptist, Buckminster
The Church of St John the Baptist is a church in Buckminster, Leicestershire. It is a Grade I listed building.
History
The church consists of a nave, chantry chapel, tower with spire and 6 bells, chancel and north and south aisles. The bells d ...
was mostly built between 1250 and 1350, of limestone. Unusually, the tower and broach spire are above the eastern end of the south aisle.
The exterior of the church is richly decorated with carvings, which include faces on the pinnacles and a carved frieze. Inside are carved corbels, and an unusual turret containing a newel-staircase at the south-east corner of the nave, which would have led to the rood loft, and still provides access to the bells.
![Mausoleum, Buckminster-geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Mausoleum%2C_Buckminster-geograph.org.uk-3077504.jpg)
The Dysart mausoleum stands to the east of the church, and is surrounded by railings. It was designed by Halsey Ricardo and built by the trustees of the estate of
Lionel Tollemache, 8th Earl of Dysart
Lionel William John Tollemache, 8th Earl of Dysart (18 November 1794 – 23 September 1878), known as Lionel Manners until 1821, as Lionel Tollemache between 1821 and 1833, and styled Lord Huntingtower between 1833 and 1840, was a British peer a ...
, who died in 1878.
It is a Grade II* listed building.
Facilities
There is a village shop on Main Street. The village hall was built in 2012, just off Main Street, and has generous parking for evening events. Buckminster Barn provides a venue for day conferences, weddings and other events. The Tollemache Arms, on Main Street, is the only licensed premises in the village, and has a restaurant.
Buckminster Primary School is half a mile south of Buckminster village, on the road to
Sewstern
Sewstern is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Buckminster, in the Melton (borough), Melton district of east Leicestershire, England. It lies just south of Buckminster, with which it shares a primary school, situated between ...
. It was rated as Good by Ofsted in 2014.
Buckminster Gliding Club based at nearby Saltby Airfield is named after the village. Buckminster United Football Club is an amateur football club based in the village.
References
Further reading
*Buchan, James (1983) ''Thatched Village''. London: Hodder & Stoughton (Buchan was also the author of ''The Expendable
Mary Slessor
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
''; he uses the name "Overton" for the village)
External links
Buckminster Gliding ClubPrimary SchoolParish CouncilLeicestershire villages
Buckminster village views videoretrieved 18 Dec 2010
{{authority control
Villages in Leicestershire
Civil parishes in Leicestershire
Borough of Melton