Wycomb is a small
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the district of
Melton, which is approximately northeast 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 ...
in
Leicestershire,
and is part of the civil parish of
Scalford, which also includes the neighbouring village of
Chadwell. Until 1 April 1936 it was in the parish of
Wycomb and Chadwell.
The settlement name (originally recorded as Wykeham)
means 'wīc-hām (Old English) A settlement associated with a Roman '
vicus
In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...
'. Wycomb is half a mile west of
Chadwell, and Wycomb has traditionally used Chadwell's church. The Church of St Mary is a
Grade II* Listed building.
History
Mentioned in the Domesday Book Survey of 1086, Wycomb was a settlement in the
Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
of
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 ...
, Leicestershire. It had an estimated population of 23 households in 1086.
Not long after the
Enclosure Act of 1773, it was recorded that the 750 acres of land in and around "Caudwell and Wykeham" belonged to the "Parish of Rodeley". Among the parish landowners, influential figures included the lord of the manor, Thomas Babington, esq., the
Bishop of Ely and the Brethren of
Wigston's Hospital. In 1795, the two settlements, and their surrounding 750 acres of farmland, were considered to be part of
East-Goscote Hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
, making it an outlier within the surrounding Hundred of Framland.
By 1879, the Waltham branch of the Great Northern Railway ran between the two settlements, adding a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
on the eastern road out towards Chadwell.
Listed buildings in Wycomb include: The Homestead - an 18th century Ironstone built cottage, and Stowleigh - a former farmhouse built in 1850. Both buildings are
Grade II Listed.
Geography
Wycomb is situated on two Middle Jurassic bedrock
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
Formations. Most of the settlement is on Marlstone Rock (Iron-grainstone, 174-191 million years old), and as you go down the valley towards the northeast, it gives way to Dyrham Formation (grey siltstone, 183-191 million years old) with bands of Sandrock.
Colluvial
Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a variable combinati ...
and
alluvial
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. All ...
river deposits overlie the bedrock along ancient watercourses, as you head towards the stream.
References
External links
Scalford Parish Council: Serving the people of Scalford, Chadwell and Wycomb
{{authority control
Hamlets in Leicestershire
Borough of Melton