Church of St Peter, Stockerston - geograph

Stockerston 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 authorit ...

in the Harborough 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 ...

, England, located on the border with

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 ...

, by the Eye Brook. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 35. The population remained less than 100 at the 2011 census and is included in the

of Horninghold.

Topography

The Parish contains various woods including the large Bolt Wood and Park Wood, and the smaller Fishpond Spinney, Great Spinney, Little Merrible Wood, and Holyoaks Wood. Bolt Wood and Park Wood are fragments of the medieval Leighfield Forest and included in the

sites of special scientific interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

known as the Eye Brook Valley Woods.

History

Analysis of the name of the village name suggests it derives from the term 'made of wood'. Archaeologists state that the scatterings of Roman and Anglo-Saxon pottery discovered at Stockerston indicate occupation during that era. The village was in the Gartree Hundred and had two mentions in 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 ...

. Stockerston is recorded as having two medieval hospitals. The first was established in 1307 and dedicated to St Leonard. The second was founded by John Boyville in 1465 and dedicated to St Mary and All Saints. In 1666, due to the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

, Anthony Tuckney (1599-1670), a notable English Puritan theologian, and

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

scholar, temporarily resided in the village. In 1840, there was a significant tithe commutation. From 1580 to 1807, the manor was held by the Burton family, whose memorials can be found in the parish church. There are ten listed buildings in the village: *

Stockerston Hall Stockerston Hall is a late-18th-century English country house in Leicestershire, near the town of Uppingham, Rutland. It is a Grade II listed building. The Manor of Stockerston was owned by the Boyville family in the 15th century and passed by m ...

* A pair of gate pillars at Harborough Hill Road * Stone Cottage * 28, Stockerston Road * The Spital * The Loophole, 46 Stockerston Road * Manor Farmhouse * The Lodge * The Church of Saint Peter * Manor Cottages, comprising The Cottage, Manor Cottage, Pedlar's Rest and Apple Cottage The two principal buildings in the village are the parish church (St Peter's) and

St Peter's church

This Grade I Listed Building is situated on the north side of Church Lane, close to Stockerston Hall. The present structure was largely built in the 13th to 15th centuries. The windows contain some medieval stained glass and the memorials inside the church include a brass that commemorates John Boyville (died c.1467) and his wife. The inscription is recorded as ''orate pro animabus Johannis Boivile Armig. & Eliz. uxoris ejus, qui hoc campanile cum campanis fieri fecerunt, 1467'' (i.e. "pray for the souls of John Boivile, a bearer of arms, and Elizabeth his wife who had this bell tower and bells made"). - this is a revised edition of the book by the noted antiquary William Burton, which was first published in 1622.

References

External links

Stockerston church - brasses and monuments
Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Harborough District {{Leicestershire-geo-stub