Muston (pronounced ''Musson'') is an 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 authority ...

, now in the parish of Bottesford, in the Melton district, in north-east

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 18.6 miles (30 km) east 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 ...

, five miles (8 km) west of

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

on the A52 and 12.5 miles (20 km) north 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 ...

. It lies on the Leicestershire/

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 ...

county border, two miles east of Bottesford. The River Devon (pronounced ''Deevon''
flows
through the village. In 1931 the parish had a population of 218. On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished and merged with Bottesford.

Facilities

The parish church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. It is in the Belvoir Group of parishes, based in Bottesford, and under the

Diocese of Leicester The Diocese of Leicester is a Church of England diocese based in Leicester and including the current county of Leicestershire. The cathedral is Leicester Cathedral, where the Bishop of Leicester has his episcopal chair. The diocese is divided int ...

. Muston Meadows is a nearby 41-ha (101-acre) grassland

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

featuring 33 types of grass and over 100 other species of flowering plant. The reserve is notable for its colony of over 10,000

Green-winged Orchid ''Anacamptis morio'', the green-winged orchid or green-veined orchid ( synonym ''Orchis morio''), is a flowering plant of the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It usually has purple flowers, and is found in Europe and the Middle East. Description It f ...

s. The 14th-century cross on the village green is a Grade II* listed structure. The

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 ...

, a long-distance footpath between

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Barton ...

and

Rutland Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire. Its greatest len ...

, passes half a mile (0.8 km) to the east of the village. The village lies near the Bingham–Bottesford–Grantham bus route, which runs about once an hour in the daytime on weekdays, but does not stop at Muston. The local pub, the ''Muston Gap]'', occupies a Grade II listed building dating back to the 18th century. It stands on the A52, 110 yards (100 metres) from the Nottingham to Grantham Line, Nottingham–Grantham railway line, where the nearest station is Bottesford 1.8 miles away (3 km). Muston also has a café (the Old Forge Tea Rooms), bed and breakfast facilities (Glebe House, a Grade II listed building, and Chantry Cottage), a children's play area and a village hall (Old School Muston).

Muston of old

Muston belonged to the ancient hundred or

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

Framland Framland was a hundred in north-east Leicestershire, England, roughly corresponding to today's borough of Melton. It was recorded in the ''Domesday Book'' as one of Leicestershire's four wapentakes. The name remains in use as a deanery of the Dioc ...

. Muston Gorse wharf on the

Grantham Canal The Grantham Canal ran 33 miles (53 km) from Grantham through 18 locks to West Bridgford, where it joined the River Trent. It was built primarily for the transportation of coal to Grantham. It opened in 1797 and its profitability steadily ...

was the terminus of the private Belvoir Tramway to

Belvoir Castle Belvoir Castle ( ) is a faux historic castle and stately home in Leicestershire, England, situated west of the town of Grantham and northeast of Melton Mowbray. The Castle was first built immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 an ...

, which opened in 1793. Some detailed, amply illustrated information on Muston and its past appears on the Bottesford Living History website. John Marius Wilson's ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (1870–72): "MUSTON... stands on the River Devon, adjacent to the boundary with Lincolnshire, near the Grantham Canal, 1½ mile east-south-east of Bottesford railway station, and 5½ west by north of Grantham; and has a post-office under Nottingham. The parish comprises 1,623 acres. Real property, £2,694. Pop., 360. Houses, 74. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to the

Duke of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in who ...

. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £400.*Patron, the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

. The church is a handsome structure; and consists of nave, aisles, chancel and two porches, with central tower and spire. There are ''(sic)'' a

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 and a national school."

Famous people

Property in Muston was owned by

Nathaniel Hallowes Nathaniel Hallowes (1582–1661) of Dethick, Derbyshire was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1640 to 1653 and again in 1659. He was an active Parliamentarian during the English Civil War. Biography Hallowe ...

(1582–1661) of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, an English politician who sat in the English

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1640 to 1653 and again in 1659. He was an active Parliamentarian during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. The poet

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

(1754–1832) moved to Muston Rectory (later Glebe House) from a curacy at Stathern in 1789, having previously been chaplain to the

from 1782 to 1784. He was a resident incumbent of Muston and of nearby West

Allington, Lincolnshire Allington is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, north-west of Grantham. The 2001 census gave a parish population of 728 in 329 households. The population increased to 897 in 422 households in t ...

until 1792, but then an absentee until 1805. He remained resident for most of the period up to 1814, when he became rector of

Trowbridge Trowbridge ( ) is the county town of Wiltshire, England, on the River Biss in the west of the county. It is near the border with Somerset and lies southeast of Bath, 31 miles (49 km) southwest of Swindon and 20 miles (32 km) southe ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. His ''Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir'' was a pioneering study of the district.Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, VIII, Antiquities in Leicestershire, 1790. Reproduced on the Harby website. Retrieved 31 March 2011

/ref>

References

External links

Parish Council
(shared with Bottesford)
Leicestershire Villages
{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Former civil parishes in Leicestershire Borough of Melton