Stapleton is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

, now in the parish of

Peckleton Peckleton is a small village and civil parish located in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. The villages of Kirkby Mallory and Stapleton also form part of the parish. Thus, according to the 2001 census, the parish ha ...

, in the

Hinckley and Bosworth Hinckley and Bosworth is a local government district with borough status in south-western Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Its only towns are Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth. Villages ...

district, in south-west Leicestershire, England, about ten miles south-west of Leicester city centre. Its population was 427 people at the 2001 census. In 1931 the parish had a population of 252. Stapleton was formerly a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the com ...

Barwell Barwell is a civil parish and large village in Leicestershire, England, with a population of 8,750 residents, Increasing to 9,022 at the 2011 census, the name literally translates as "Stream of the Boar" and is said to originate from a boar tha ...

parish, from 1866 Stapleton was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 1 April 1935 and merged with Peckleton. Stapleton is built on part of a long ridge that begins in

to the south, and is followed by the A447 road north, gaining height until it reaches Osbaston, where it descends into a tributary of 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 ...

. In terms of rivers, Stapleton's nearest major river is the River Sence, but on a more local level, the River Tweed is the closest waterway, a tributary of which rises in the north of the village. The River Tweed's main source rises from Brick Kiln Hill, just north-east of

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 Lough ...

from where it flows north along the eastern edge of Barwell before turning west and continuing to travel in a north-easterly direction. The village is centred on St. Martins church (built in about 1300 according to Pevsner) which is to be found on Church Lane in the southern end of the village and was most probably established as a connection point for travellers journeying between Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle and the areas around

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and W ...

and

Kenilworth Kenilworth ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Warwick District in Warwickshire, England, south-west of Coventry, north of Warwick and north-west of London. It lies on Finham Brook, a tributary of the River Sowe, which joins the ...

. The earliest known reference to the village appears in a charter from

King of Mercia The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...

Wiglaf Wiglaf (Proto-Norse: *'' Wīga laibaz'', meaning "battle remainder"; ang, Wīġlāf ) is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ''Beowulf''. He is the son of Weohstan, a Swede of the Wægmunding clan who had entered the service of Beowulf, k ...

to the Abbot of Crowland in

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, Leicestershir ...

written in 833, making grants of "two ploughlands in Stapleton and

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * S ...

". Stapleton is mentioned 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 ...

as having a population of five or six families and being owned by

Hugh de Grandmesnil Hugh de Grandmesnil (1032 – 22 February 1098), (known in French as ''Hugues'' and Latinised as ''Hugo de Grentmesnil'', aliter ''Grentemesnil'', etc.), is one of the proven companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battl ...

, who had been given most of West Leicester by

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, ...

after the

Conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

References

{{authority control Villages in Leicestershire Former civil parishes in Leicestershire Hinckley and Bosworth