Hugglescote is a village on the

River Sence The River Sence is a river which flows in Leicestershire, England. The tributaries of the Sence, including the Saint and Tweed, fan out over much of western Leicestershire from Charnwood Forest and Coalville in the north-east to Hinckley and ...

North West Leicestershire North West Leicestershire is a local government district in Leicestershire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 census was 93,348. Its main towns are Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Coalville and Ibstock. The dist ...

, England. The village is about south of the centre of

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

, and its built-up area is now contiguous with the town. Hugglescote and

Donington le Heath Donington le Heath is a village on the River Sence just over south of the centre of Coalville in North West Leicestershire. Donington is contiguous with the village of Hugglescote immediately to the east. The population of the village is includ ...

were part of the parish of

Ibstock Ibstock is a former coal mining town and civil parish about south of Coalville in North West Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 5,760 at the 2001 census increasing to 6,201 at the 2011 census. The town is on the ...

until 1878, when they were formed into a separate

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 ...

. Against local belief, Hugglescote is not classed as Coalville. The civil parish of Hugglescote and Donington le Heath was reinstated by an order made in May 2010, and the new parish council held its first meeting in May 2011.

Manor

The manor was held by Hugh le Despencer in 1217 and was in various hands until 1464 when the king granted it to William Hastings. In 1463

William Beaumont, 2nd Viscount Beaumont William Beaumont, 2nd Viscount Beaumont (April 1438 – 19 December 1507) was an English nobleman, soldier and landowner who was a leading supporter of the Lancastrian faction during the Wars of the Roses. He was the son of John Beaumont, 1st Vi ...

held the manors of Donington and Hugglescote. However, in the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

Beaumont had fought for the

House of Lancaster The House of Lancaster was a cadet branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. The first house was created when King Henry III of England created the Earldom of Lancasterfrom which the house was namedfor his second son Edmund Crouchback in 126 ...

so he was

attainder In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditar ...

ed and

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

granted Donington and Hugglescote to the

Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

courtier

William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings KG (c. 1431 – June 1483) was an English nobleman. A loyal follower of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses, he became a close friend and one of the most important courtiers of King Edward IV, w ...

. As of 1831 the Marquis of hastings was lord of the manor. The Hastings family's

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

has been lost. It had a

formal garden A formal garden is a garden with a clear structure, geometric shapes and in most cases a symmetrical layout. Its origin goes back to the gardens which are located in the desert areas of Western Asia and are protected by walls. The style of a forma ...

in which a red brick building was erected in about 1700 and altered in about 1820. The building survives but part of its stone slate roof has collapsed.

Church and chapels

Church of England

There was an old Church of England

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

in Dennis Street which was replaced by a

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 ...

chapel of Saint James in 1776. Hugglescote's population outgrew the chapel and so the present

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 ...

of Saint

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

was built on a new site in Grange Road and consecrated in 1879. St. John's is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building designed by the architect J. B. Everard in an Early English style. The first vicar, Canon H. E. Broughton, was installed in 1878 and died in office in 1924. He is commemorated by a

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

installed in St. John's in 1937 and a nearby road-name, Broughton Street. St. John's is built largely of local materials: Charnwood granite

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary ...

Swithland Swithland is a linear village in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England. The civil parish population was put at 230 in 2004 and 217 in the 2011 census. It is in the old Charnwood Forest, between Cropston, Woodhouse and Woodhouse ...

slate, Ibstock brick and Coalville ceramic floor tiles. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

has five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

arcades with

Shap Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 ...

granite

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

and a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

with paired

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s. St. John's has a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

al south chapel and a central belltower over the crossing. The building was extended in 1887. The tower has a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of eight bells, all cast by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

in 1900. St. John's is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

St. John's has an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Re ...

dating from 1575 and a parish chest from the former chapel. The

parish register A parish register in an ecclesiastical parish is a handwritten volume, normally kept in the parish church in which certain details of religious ceremonies marking major events such as baptisms (together with the dates and names of the parents), ma ...

s date from 1564. St. John's is the largest place of worship in the area, seating some 600 people. It is now part of a combined

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

with the parishes of

Ellistown Ellistown is a village about south of Coalville in North West Leicestershire, England. It is named after Colonel Joseph Joel Ellis who died in 1885. The population from the 2011 census was included in the civil parish of Ellistown and Battlef ...

and

Snibston Snibston is an area and former civil parish east of Ravenstone, now in the parish of Ravenstone with Snibstone, in the North West Leicestershire district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. Originally rural, part of Snibston was transfor ...

Methodist

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

chapel in Station Road was completed in 1831 and extended in 1891. It is now Hugglescote

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Church.

Baptist

Hugglescote had a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

chapel in Dennis Street. The building is now closed but the Baptist congregation continues to worship in Hugglescote Community Primary School.

Economic and social history

A few historic cottages survive in Dennis Street. 26 and 28 Dennis Street are two timber-framed cottages, one of which has the date 1583 on a

collar beam A collar beam or collar is a horizontal member between two rafters and is very common in domestic roof construction. Often a collar is structural but they may be used simply to frame a ceiling. A collar beam is often called a collar tie but this ...

and thus dates from the period that

W. G. Hoskins William George Hoskins (22 May 1908 – 11 January 1992) was an English local historian who founded the first university department of English Local History. His great contribution to the study of history was in the field of landscape history. ...

identified as the

Great Rebuilding A Great Rebuilding is a period in which a heightened level of construction work, architectural change, or rebuilding occurred. More specifically, W. G. Hoskins defined the term "The Great Rebuilding" in England as the period from the mid-16th cent ...

of England. The gable end has collar and tie beams and queen struts. The building was extended eastwards in 1761. In 1960 Hoskins considered the original part of the building to be the oldest dated cottage in a Leicestershire village. 16 Dennis Street is a timber-framed cottage with brick nogging that was mainly built in the 17th century, although the original part of the cottage was built in 1590, and has some alterations from the 19th or late 18th centuries. The staircase is in a semicircular extension at the rear of the cottage. 15 Dennis Street is a cottage built of brick with a Swithland slate roof and the date 1757 on a brick over the front door. The soil is in some parts of clay but in others a light sandy loam. In 1831 the number of houses was 127 and the population 683. Farmland in the township was

enclosed Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...

in 1774. In 1945 this estate was sold by Brigadier C. L. O. Tayleur. By 1848 Donington and Hugglescote had a National School. It moved into a new building completed in 1862, and an infants' school was added in 1883. The 1862 and 1883 buildings are now Hugglescote Community Centre.Hugglescote Community Centre
/ref> Construction of the

Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway was a pre-grouping railway company in the English Midlands, built to serve the Leicestershire coalfield. Both the Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) wished to build a line on simi ...

began in 1869 and it opened in 1873. The ANJR had a branch from through Hugglescote to .

Hugglescote railway station Hugglescote railway station is a disused railway station on the former Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway. It served the large village of Hugglescote where it joined the Leicester - Burton line and Charnwood Forest Railway. It closed in 1931 to ...

had a junction to the north of it added in 1883, when the

Charnwood Forest Railway The Charnwood Forest Railway was a branch line in Leicestershire constructed by the Charnwood Forest Company between 1881 and 1883. The branch line ran from Coalville (joined from the Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway (ANJR)) to the town of Loug ...

opened from here to . The

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

absorbed both lines in the

1923 grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

and withdrew passenger services from both lines in 1931. Nationalisation in 1948 made the lines part of

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, which withdrew freight services from the Charnwood Forest line in 1963 and from the Ashby and Nuneaton line in 1971.

Notable residents

The Victorian

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

ist,

Henry Dennis Henry Dennis (1818–1887) was a nineteenth-century hymnist, who earned worldwide fame for his hymn tune, 'Euphony'. A Leicestershire farmer, Dennis composed fifty-four anthems and six hymn tunes. Born at Ticknall in Derbyshire, Dennis is said ...

(1818–87) lived in Hugglescote for forty years and is buried in the old Baptist Cemetery off Grange Road: Dennis Street is named after him. In the same cemetery is the tomb of

William Stenson William Stenson (1770–1861) was a mining engineer born in Coleorton, Leicestershire. Background Little is currently known about Stenson's background. Detail of his parentage remains unknown and neither is it known where he would have rece ...

(1770–1861), the mining engineer and founder of

Whitwick Whitwick is a large village in Leicestershire, England, close to the town of Coalville in the northwest of the county. It lies in an ancient parish which formerly included the equally historic villages of Thringstone and Swannington. It was an ...

Colliery, who has sometimes been described as "the father of Coalville".

Amenities

Hugglescote now has a Community Primary School. The buildings of its former National School (see above) are now a community centre. The village has one

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

:, The Gate Inn. It has also a

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education for working class me ...

.Hugglescote Social Club
/ref> Roberts Travel Group are based on Midland Road within the village and provide the local bus service connecting the village with

and

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

References

Sources

* *

Gallery

Hugglescote StJohnBaptist west.JPG, West front of St. John the Baptist parish church Hugglescote StJohnBaptist southeast.JPG, St. John the Baptist parish church from the southeast Hugglescote WesleyanChapel CompletionStone.JPG, 1851 completion stone on Hugglescote Methodist church Hugglescote WesleyanChapel FireInsuranceMark.JPG, Norwich Union fire insurance mark on Hugglescote Methodist church

External links

{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire North West Leicestershire District Coalville