Frisby on the Wreake 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 ...

on the River Wreake about west of Melton Mowbray,

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. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 557. The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

"Frisby" was applied by Danish invaders in the 9th or 10th century. It refers to the farm or settlement of the

Frisians The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal regions of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, ...

. The "on the Wreake" suffix was added later to distinguish the village from another Frisby, near Billesdon, about to the southeast. "Wreake" refers to the River Wreake. The name of the river originates from a Danish word referring to the

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

ing nature of the river.

Parish church

The oldest parts of the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

St Thomas of Canterbury Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

are 12th-century. The building includes much 14th- and 15th-century work. The north

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

was rebuilt about 1820. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

was rebuilt when the church was restored in 1848. The church is now a Grade I listed building. The west tower has three bells. Hugh I Watts 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 ...

cast the treble bell in about 1600. William Noone of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

cast the second and tenor bells in 1711. In the 18th century the parish priest agreed to marry couples from some distance away. This was at a time when wedding ceremonies were closely controlled by the church and state. It is likely that many of the marriages of couples from elsewhere went against the consent of close relatives. The number of weddings at the parish church increased substantially compared to earlier and later times and the village earned the later nickname of the

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, on the Scottish side of the border between Scotland and England, defined by the small river Sark, which flows into the nearby Solway Firth. It was historica ...

of the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

Economic and social history

Way Cross near Frisby on the Wreake Leicestershire

When the church was founded the main road from

to Melton Mowbray passed through the village, entering from

Hoby with Rotherby Hoby with Rotherby is a civil parish in Leicestershire, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 594, reducing to 556 at the time of the 2011 census. It includes the villages of Hoby, Rotherby, Ragdale and Brooksby. The parish i ...

to the south and leaving by Kirby Bellars to the north. The village was bypassed to the south when the

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

, now the primary route

A607 The A607 is an A road in England that starts in Belgrave, Leicester and heads northeastwards through Leicestershire and the town of Grantham, Lincolnshire, terminating at Bracebridge Heath, a village on the outskirts of Lincoln. It is a primary ...

, was built in the 18th century. The new road passes a

Mediæval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire an ...

wayside cross that may have been a preaching place. The base and broken shaft of the cross survive. There is another Mediæval stone cross in the village centre. Frisby Mill was on the River Wreake and was working at the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

in 1086. The mill was rebuilt several times, but fell into disuse at the beginning of the 20th century. The channels to divert the river water to the mill may still be seen in the fields to the northwest of the village. Blue Bell Inn Frisby

Farming was organised on an

open field system The open-field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe during the Middle Ages and lasted into the 20th century in Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Each manor or village had two or three large fields, usually several hundred acre ...

. Each landholder was awarded a series of strips in the three common fields. This ensured everyone shared the best and worst land. The remains of the strips can still be seen, more than a thousand years since they were first created. When the great fields were enclosed in the late 18th century, landowners were compensated by the award of blocks of land. The poorer owners often sold their holdings, which were usually very small, and consolidation into the present farms took place. The existing farms in the outlying fields were all created at this time. Originally the village lands were all worked from homes in the village itself. The remaining farmhouses in the village are older than those outside the village. As in many other Leicestershire villages, the new, consolidated blocks of land were planted with

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

hedges, Thus, most hedges between the Frisby fields are not more than 250 years old. Those by the roadside and along the parish boundary are likely to be much older, as these were the lines that marked the medieval limits of the parish and its fields. Frisby on the Wreake Rail Signal Box

Transport was improved by the opening of the

Melton Mowbray Navigation The Melton Mowbray Navigation was formed when the River Wreake in Leicestershire, England, was made navigable upstream from its junction with the River Soar and the Leicester Navigation near Syston to Melton Mowbray, opening in 1797. Largely river ...

in the 1790s and the Syston and Peterborough Railway in 1847. A condition of building the railway was that it should take over the canal.

Frisby railway station Frisby railway station was a former station serving the village of Frisby on the Wreake in Leicestershire. The station was situated at a level crossing on the road to Hoby. History The station opened in 1847 on the Syston and Peterborough Rai ...

served the parish until

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways closed it in the year 1961.

References

Bibliography

External links

Frisby on the Wreake Parish CouncilWelcome to Frisby on the Wreake
{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Leicestershire Borough of Melton