HUMBERSTONE
Humberstone lies 2½ miles north-east from Leicester
and was formerly an ancient and civil parish in East
Goscote hundred and Billesdon union. In 1892 445
acres of the parish were taken into the borough of
Leicester as West Humberstone civil parish. This
new civil parish was dissolved in 1896 and absorbed
in Leicester civil parish. The remainder of Humberstone (1174 a.) was transferred to Leicester in 1935. (fn. 1)
The old village stands on an island of glacial sands
and gravels in the Boulder Clay to the north-east of
Leicester. (fn. 2) The British Railways (Midland) line runs
to the west and the line from Leicester to Melton
Mowbray runs through New Humberstone to the
south. There is a station on this line at New Humberstone.
Little of the old village remains. Of the two manorhouses only Humberstone Manor at the west end of
the village survives. It dates mainly from the 17th
century, although parts of the building may be older.
This house now forms part of the Towers Hospital,
as does the early-17th-century barn, reputed locally
to be a tithe barn. (fn. 3) The barn is built of brick and is
a fine building of ten bays with a slate roof. It was
restored in 1954. (fn. 4) The other manor-house is probably
represented by the homestead site in what used to be
known as Swan's Orchard, a little to the east of the
church in Steins Lane. Excavation of this site was
carried out in 1955 for the Ministry of Works and
revealed traces of a 13th-century building and of
Tudor cottages.
Of the other houses in the village, Humberstone
Lodge, on the north side of Main Street, is a late18th-century house of three stories. The Grange, on
the south side of the street, is a smaller house of the
same date and style, although substantially altered.
No. 106 Main Street is the single cottage of any
interest; it is of brick with a timber and thatched
porch and thatched roof.
The name of the parish is possibly derived from
'Hunbeorht's stone'. A stone called the 'Humber'
stone stands near Thurmaston Lane in the parish
and is the object of a certain amount of legend and
tradition as a supposed sacred site. (fn. 5)
Manors.
In 1086 Hugh de Grentemesnil held 9
carucates of land and 12 acres of meadow in HUMBERSTONE as socland of his manor of Earl Shilton. (fn. 6) Although the Earl of Leicester is not returned
as the owner of Humberstone in the Leicestershire
Survey of c. 1130, it seems very probable that the
manor did descend from Hugh to the earls of Leicester since between 1190 and 1204 the Earl of
Leicester confirmed a grant of property at Humberstone made by Hugh to St. Evroul Abbey. (fn. 7) Humberstone belonged to Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, at his
death in 1296 and passed to the Crown with the rest
of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1399. (fn. 8)
In c. 1130 three men were returned as holding
land in Humberstone, Roger de Ramis, who held 8
carucates, Walter de Musters, who held 1, and Ralph
de Martival, who held 3. (fn. 9) It seems likely that they
were the Earl of Leicester's tenants in demesne. The
holdings of Walter and Roger cannot be traced subsequently. Later in the 12th century land in Humberstone was held by John Humet, who made grants to
Croxton Abbey and Leicester Abbey. (fn. 10) John Humet's
grant to Croxton was confirmed by Richard de Grey, (fn. 11)
the owner of Evington manor, who had married
Humet's daughter, Lucy, and a small quantity of land
in Humberstone continued to be held as part of the
manor of Evington. (fn. 12) Farnham suggested that the
Grey family were the mesne lords of the manor
called Hotoft's manor, and although there is no direct
evidence of this, in 1376 John de Grey claimed the
marriage and wardship of one of the Hotoft heirs. (fn. 13)
Two manors held in demesne from the Duchy of
Lancaster existed in Humberstone from at least the
beginning of the 14th century, although the date
of their separation is not clear. The first, called
HOTOFT'S MANOR, was returned as the property
of Robert Hotoft in 1316. (fn. 14) An earlier Robert Hotoft
had held land in the parish some time before 1288. (fn. 15)
This manor descended in the same family until it
was sold between 1475 and 1485 to Thomas Keble. (fn. 16)
He was a wealthy sergeant-at-law, descended through
his mother from Richard (d. 1451), the last male
Hotoft, and he had already purchased a considerable
estate for himself in the county before his purchase
of Humberstone. His brother John (d.1485) also held
land in the parish (fn. 17) and his son Walter acquired
Hesilrige's manor from Thomas Hesilrige in 1519. (fn. 18)
The holding later known as HESILRIGE'S
MANOR was the property in 1316 of Roger de
Martival, the descendant of the Ralph de Martival
of the Leicestershire Survey. (fn. 19) From the Martivals
the manor descended to Robert de Saddington, who
was Chancellor 1343–5, through his marriage with
the Martival heiress, Joyce, probably the daughter of
Anketil de Martival. (fn. 20) Saddington's great-granddaughter, Isabel Heron, married Thomas Hesilrige
of Fawdon (Northumb.), and Noseley and the manor
of Humberstone thus passed into the hands of the
family from whom it came to be named. (fn. 21) In 1519
Thomas Hesilrige sold it to Walter Keble and from
that time both manors descend together. They were
confiscated for a time because of the recusancy of
Henry Keble's wife Jane, and were sold to Sir Henry
Hastings in 1614 by Margaret Bowes, the daughter
and heir of Henry Keble. (fn. 22) The Hastings family
retained the manors until 1687, in spite of the heavy
fines imposed upon them for their support of Charles
I. (fn. 23) Shortly before his death in 1697, Henry Hastings
sold the Humberstone manors to Thomas Sutton, a
Londoner (fn. 24) who was connected with an old Humberstone family, the Bales, which had formerly held
land there. (fn. 25) In 1755 Thomas Sutton's son, another
Thomas, sold the manors, which still bore their old
names, to William Pochin, M.P., of Barkby Hall, (fn. 26)
whose descendants are still the principal landowners.
The house known as the Manor House was sold by
Mr. V. R. Pochin in 1933 to the tenant, Mr. Stafford
Fox, together with a plot of 2 acres of grass-land,
known as the Cunnery, which marks the site of the
former fishponds and which is mentioned in the
inclosure award as an ancient close. (fn. 27) This estate was
sold to the Leicester Corporation in the same year (fn. 28)
and since 1948 has formed part of the land attached
to the Towers Hospital. It is not clear to which of
the manors this house was attached.
Economic History.
There were four open
fields in Humberstone, South, Middle, North, and
Mill fields. (fn. 29) The glebe terrier of 1601 names Stayne
and North meadows, but by 1788 the names of these
meadows were Marston and South meadows; there
were also in 1788 two cow pastures. (fn. 30) Little early
inclosure took place. In 1607 it was reported that the
house of a husbandman was in decay and the vicar,
Thomas Wilson, was said to have seized the land
belonging to another. (fn. 31) In 1788 only eight existing
closes are mentioned. The designations of occupations given in the parish registers indicate a community of small farmers, husbandmen, yeomen, and
labourers.
The parish was inclosed in 1788 and in addition to
the lord of the manor, the impropriator, and the vicar,
17 freeholders received allotments under the award.
Of these 17, 8 received less than 5 acres and one
other less than 10 acres. A schedule of tithe payments
on house sites and gardens is appended to the parish
copy of the award. (fn. 32) This list contains the names of
11 owner-occupiers, 19 occupiers who did not own
their houses, and 7 owners who did not occupy their
houses: none of these names, except that of the
vicar, appears in the award. Some families appear
constantly in the parish register from the middle of
the 16th century to the 19th, but of the proprietors of
1788, only nine belonged to families of long standing
in the village. Of these, the name Hawes first appears
in the register for the year 1558. Several members of
the family held the office of churchwarden in the
early 17th century and the family holding is referred
to in the glebe terrier of 1601. (fn. 33) Entries relating to
the Bright family occur in the registers from 1562
onwards. Two members of the family paid subsidy
in 1628 (fn. 34) and Thomas Bright paid tax on one hearth
in 1670. (fn. 35) The Bright allotment in 1788 was seven
acres. The first mention of the name Norman in the
register is in 1659: the alternative name for Thurnby
Road in the inclosure award is Norman's Lane. Two
members of the family received small allotments (8a.,
2a.) in 1788. The family of Hartopp, represented in
the award by E. Hartopp Wigley, the impropriator,
had lived in the village since the end of the 17th
century.
About five-sevenths of the land allotted in 1788
went to half the landowners, the bulk to Marmaduke
Tomline, William Pochin, E. Hartopp Wigley,
Thomas Allsopp, William Tailby, and John Dudley,
in that order. More than a third was allotted to nonresidents, Pochin, Allsopp, and Tomline. The rest
was divided into the small allotments of the husbandmen. No great changes in land ownership followed
the inclosure. One small owner had disappeared by
1792 and another by 1797. (fn. 36) By 1805 the greatest
single landowner, Tomline, had disposed of his property to William Haseldine, but in 1821 fourteen
owners named in the award still appear, and ten were
still there in 1832. From 1816 Thomas Paget, the
Leicester banker, began to buy land in the parish,
where he already lived and where his son John had
been born in 1811. (fn. 37) By 1829 he was a very considerable landowner. In 1922 the three principal owners
were still called Pochin, Paget, and Hartopp. (fn. 38)
Humberstone seems always to have been a fairsized village. Twenty-five persons paid hearth tax in
1670 and a further 23 were excused as poor. (fn. 39) Fortyeight paid tithe at the time of the inclosure. (fn. 40) Thereafter the number of inhabitants increased sharply as
Humberstone became a centre for framework-knitting and gradually a suburb of Leicester. Framework-knitters and hosiers are not mentioned in the
parish registers until 1782, except for the baptism of
a hosier's child in 1703, but we know from other
sources that they were there from the early years of
the 18th century. (fn. 41) Between 1812 and 1833 22 different names of framework-knitters appear and in
three of these families a second generation was living
in the parish and carrying on the same occupation;
some of the second generation, on the other hand,
had moved into Leicester and some were beginning
to be termed 'operatives' or 'hosiery hands'.
In 1821 the population was 415. This figure more
than doubled during the next 40 years. (fn. 42) The borough
lunatic asylum, now known as the Towers Hospital,
was opened in 1869. (fn. 43) New Humberstone, first men
tioned in the parish registers in 1880, comprised that
part of the parish which bordered on the borough.
Leicester tradespeople and manufacturers were
building their houses there, especially along Overton
Road and Victoria Road. When the parish was
divided in 1892 the depleted village outside the
borough, with a population of only 365, still retained
the marks of a true rural community. Though there
ceased to be a miller in Humberstone between 1855
and 1863 (fn. 44) and though the last mention of the village
cabinet-maker is in 1849, (fn. 45) the Humberstone of 1895
still had its own carpenter, blacksmith, bootmaker,
and maltster. (fn. 46) The building up of the village of
Humberstone was completed in the 1930's, though
there is still some agricultural land to the north of the
old village.
Parish Administration.
The organization
of the parish of Humberstone presents no singular
features. The village had its own workhouse by
1776. (fn. 47) No parish records dealing with civil affairs
survive from the days before Humberstone was
placed in the Billesdon union under the new Poor
Law. (fn. 48)
Churches.
No church is mentioned in Humberstone until the early 13th century, when the advowson was held by Leicester Abbey, to whom it had
been granted by Ernald de Bosco and Jordan Humet, (fn. 49)
either of whom may have been responsible for its
foundation. In 1217 the living was worth £5. (fn. 50) In
1329 the abbey received a licence to appropriate the
church although this was not done until about 1351. (fn. 51)
Before the appropriation the rector gave half a mark
yearly to the abbey, and the monks of St. Evroul in
France had two-thirds of the tithes of corn from two
halls and one virgate under a grant of Hugh de
Grentemesnil. (fn. 52) The abbey continued to present to
the vicarage until the Dissolution, when the rectory
and advowson passed to the Crown. In 1254 the
vicarage was valued at £15 and at £24 6s. 8d. in 1291,
but in 1535 it was valued at £8 net. (fn. 53) In 1582 Sir
Christopher Hatton sold the advowson and rectory,
which had been granted to him in the same year by
the queen, to John Chippendale, D.C.L., of Humberstone. (fn. 54) The descent of the rectory is obscure after
this date, but the rectorial tithes were still attached
to the vicarage in 1696, when they were granted to
William Noble. (fn. 55) In 1788 the lay impropriator was
Edward Hartopp Wigley, who received two yearly
sums of £284 10s. and 8s. 5½d. in lieu of tithes at
the inclosure. (fn. 56) John Chippendale's granddaughter
passed on the advowson to her husband, Valentine
Bale, on their marriage in 1628 and it remained in
the Bale family's possession for the next fifty years.
After passing through various hands it came into the
possession of Isaac Dudley, who presented in 1761
his brother John in succession to their father, Paul
Dudley, who had been vicar since 1715. (fn. 57) John was
succeeded by his son, another John, a miscellaneous
writer of some note, who inherited the advowson and
held the living until his death in 1856. (fn. 58) He sold the
advowson before 1846 to Halford Adcock, whose son
was the curate in charge of the parish. (fn. 59) After passing
through the hands of various clerical owners, the
advowson came into the possession of the Leicester
Diocesan Board of Patronage. (fn. 60)
The living was augmented in 1787 by two grants of
£200 each from Queen Anne's Bounty and from
Isaac Dudley and a William Stevens. (fn. 61) By the inclosure award 120 acres of glebe were allotted to the
vicar, who also received a yearly sum of £110 15s. in
lieu of the small tithes and a further 8s. 5½d. in lieu
of tithes from a separate 2 acres, probably old inclosure. (fn. 62)
A new church, ST. BARNABAS, New Humberstone, was completed in 1886, from the plans of
Joseph Goddard, of the Leicester firm of Goddard
and Paget. (fn. 63) The parish was formed in 1887 out of
those of Humberstone, Evington, and Belgrave and
includes the Towers Hospital. The presentation was
originally in the hands of the Bishop of Peterborough,
but has since passed to the Bishop of Leicester. (fn. 64)
Two chapels, Swan's chapel and Keble's chapel,
are mentioned in 1637. (fn. 65) In 1535 the chaplain of
Keble's chapel received a salary of £5 6s. 8d. from
money left by Thomas Keble. (fn. 66) Nothing further is
known of the foundation or subsequent history of
either.
The parish church of ST. MARY consists of nave,
chancel, north and south aisles, south porch, vestry,
and west tower. Of the original 13th-century church,
little remains but the tower and parts of the outer
walls, more especially in the chancel. In 1518 the
visitation of the Bishop of Lincoln revealed that the
image of the patron saint was putrifacta et senex, that
there was no bell, that the chancel and the gate of the
churchyard were in bad repair, that the rain leaked
through the church roof upon the pyx, and that various pieces of church furniture were scattered about
the village in private houses. (fn. 67) In 1637 the roof leaked
in many places and the east window was broken.
The chapels, Keble's chapel and Swan's chapel,
needed paving, and it was also complained that 'the
Clarke doth not goe'. (fn. 68) Repairs had evidently been
carried out before the end of the 17th century: in
1692 the church was reported to be in good condition. (fn. 69) In 1779 the chancel needed repair again and a
considerable number of minor matters were brought
to the notice of the archdeacon. (fn. 70) Twelve years later
it was stated that the church was damp and decayed,
with bricks and rubbish inside it and weeds and
moss growing out of the walls. (fn. 71) Before 1836 the
parapets had all been replaced and the chancel had
been reroofed. (fn. 72) In 1857–8 the nave, aisles, and porch
were all rebuilt in the style of 13th-century Gothic
and the interior of the chancel was refaced with
alabaster. (fn. 73) The tower was restored in 1869 (fn. 74) and a
complete redecoration took place in 1950.
The rebuilt portions of the church are of ashlar
while the chancel is of rubble with worked stone
dressings and plain stone parapets to low-pitched,
lead-covered roofs. There is a clerestory, lighted on
each side by five windows. The tower rises in four
stages, diminished at each by weathered offsets and
crowned by a broach spire. The tower parapet was
originally decorated with quatrefoil panels, of which
only the lower parts remain. Below its base moulding
there is on the south side a carved frieze with two
effigies; on the east side are quatrefoil panels, two
decorated with a star and crescent; on the north are
grotesque animals, separated by panels each containing a cock; and on the west there is foliated
scroll-work. The tower doorway and the windows to
the ringing- and bell-chambers are original.
The roofs were rebuilt during the restoration of
1857–8 but a few pieces of 15th-century timber were
used. The roof bosses and carvings were gilded in
1950. The font dates from the last century and stands
at the west end. The Early English font was destroyed
in 1857–8 but was pieced together and, after standing for a short time in a Humberstone garden, was
taken in 1911 to Little Dalby Hall. (fn. 75) The six bells
were rehung in 1948. The earliest is dated 1620; the
rest date from 1628, 1673, and 1743 (the last by T.
Eayre). One is undated but was cast by Eayre probably about 1740. The sixth was cast by Taylor of
Loughborough and was the gift of T. T. Paget about
1870. (fn. 76)
In the north aisle is a table tomb with an alabaster
top, bearing the figure of a man in armour. The
marginal inscription is to Richard Hotoft (d. 1547).
The tomb was restored in 1852. There are several
18th-century stone slabs in the floor, and one wallmonument. (fn. 77)
The main series of registers dates from 1557, but
there are isolated entries from 1552. There is no
ancient plate.
Roman Catholicism.
Members of the Keble
and Bowes family, in which Humberstone manor
descended, (fn. 78) were convicted as recusants in the late
16th century and early 17th. (fn. 79) They may have maintained a private chapel. After the departure of the
Bowes family in 1614, there was no Roman Catholic
chapel until the chapel of St. Joseph, Goodwood
Road, was established on the site of a disused farm
in 1938, and the buildings were converted to a chapel
by voluntary labour. The parish of St. Joseph was
created from part of that of Sacred Heart in 1942. (fn. 80)
The convent school at Evington Hall, run by a community of the Sisters of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, is in this parish. It was opened in 1939,
when the school was moved from St. Peter's parish,
where it had been established since 1918. (fn. 81)
Protestant Nonconformity.
Anabaptists are mentioned occasionally in the parish registers
from the beginning of the 18th century, and in 1712
a Quaker living in the parish was buried in Leicester. (fn. 82)
About the same time it was reported that a Quaker
and two Anabaptists were living in the parish, and a
few years later there were one Presbyterian and one
Anabaptist, and Quaker and Presbyterian ministers. (fn. 83)
By 1829 a congregation of 20 Wesleyan Methodists
had a meeting-house; (fn. 84) their chapel was built in
1841. (fn. 85) A second Wesleyan chapel was built in
Overton Road in 1882. (fn. 86) There is a Baptist chapel in
the same road (built in 1881). (fn. 87) There are Methodist
chapels in Uppingham Road (1925) (fn. 88) and Edgehill
Road (1901), (fn. 89) and a Congregational chapel in Abbots
Road (1851). (fn. 90)
Schools.
The National school was built in 1857
by Halford Adcock. Twenty years later it was attended
by about 70 pupils. (fn. 91) In 1935 it was transferred to
the Leicester Education Committee and is still (1955)
an infant and junior school. There was a school
board at West Humberstone which built the Bridge
Road Board School (1889) and the Overton Road
Board School (1881). (fn. 92)
Charities.
The inclosure award allotted just
under an acre of land to the church and the poor in
respect of the Town or Church Land. It was leased
in 1837 for £3, but nothing further is known of it.
The rent of £3 and a further £7 from 1½ acres called
the Orchard were divided in 1837 between the upkeep of the church and the poor rates. (fn. 93) The Orchard
was sold in 1931. The income from the proceeds,
now amounting to £52, is divided between the poor
and the church. The land, a triangular patch bounde
by Humberstone Drive, Thurmaston Lane and Gipsy
Lane, was lately known as the Crow Orchard. (fn. 94)
Two further charities, one of £35 from an unknown donor and one of £20 from Hugh Botham,
had been lost for over 40 years before 1837. (fn. 95)