Donisthorpe

The Swadlincote Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

A Cemetery of 1.5 acres was opened in 1875 on Church Street and enlarged in 1901 by almost 4 acres.

• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican church was built in 1838 for the joint township and also for a part of Ashby Wolds in Leicestershire.
   
• An ecclesiastical parish was formed for the church from the parishes above.
   
• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist.
   
• The church is now used only occasionally.
   
• The church hall has fallen into disuse in recent decades and, at last report, was condemned.
   
• The church seats 500.
   
• Philip JEFFREY has a photograph of St John's Church on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2014.
   
• "Bikeboy" also has a photograph of St John the Evangelist on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2015.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1838.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Repton.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.

"DONISTHORPE and OAKTHORPE, are two hamlets adjacent to each other, about four miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch; they are both partly in the parish of Church-Gresley, Donisthorpe extending into that of Nether Seal, county of Leicester; and Oakthorpe stretching into Measham parish, and also into that of Stretten-en-le-Fields. They contained together, in 1831, 757 inhabitants."A Cemetery of 1.5 acres was opened in 1875 on Church Street and enlarged in 1901 by almost 4 acres.

• Burial Records can be accessed by contacting the Parish Clerk (just specific burials, no "blanket" searches").

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Donisthorpe entry under Measham from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
   
• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Donisthorpe entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Donisthorpe to another place.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK311125 (Lat/Lon: 52.708919, -1.541583), Donisthorpe which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• Cris SLOAN has a photograph of Seals Road on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2007. This road was bombed by a lone German plane during World War 2.
   
• Donisthorpe and Oakthorpe share a War Memorial outside the Donisthorpe Cemetery.
   
• Cris SLOAN has a photograph of the World War 2 remembrance gates at the entrance to the civic cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2007.

Donisthorpe Cemetery has these Commonwealth War Graves of the following:

World War I:

1. G. CHAWNER, priv., 7th Btn. Leics Regt., died 31 July 1916.
2. Arnold Penford LOCK, priv., 2nd/5th Btn. Leics Regt., age 23, died 22 Jan 1918. Son of Kate LOCK and the late Arthur LOCK.
3. Wilfred REDFERN, rifleman, 18th Btn. KRRC, age 19, died 24 Sept. 1916. Son of George and Mary Ann REDFERN.
4. George Arthur WILLDAY, priv., Liecs. Regt., age 27, died 26 Feb. 1917. Husband of Mrs. Elsie Faith WILLDAY.

World War II:

1. Gerald GREENWOOD, srgt., 22 Sqdn. RAF, age 23, died 15 Apr. 1940. Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. L. GREENWOOD, of Moira.
2. Walter Alexander JARVIS, able seaman, Royal Navy (HMS Victory), age 25, died 2 Oct. 1946. Husband of Kathleen Maud JARVIS, of Oakthorpe.
3. Frank KEEN, major, RAOC, age 49, 25 Feb. 1944. Son of Thomas Benyon Keen and Mary KEEN.
4. Frank WATERS, priv., Glouc. Regt., age 25, died 5 Nov. 1943. Son of Frank and Eliza WATERS.
5. Joseph WRIGHT, lance cpl., 226 General Transport co., RASC, age 28, died 29 Jan. 1946. Son of Joseph and Mary Ann WRIGHT.

• This place was an ancient Township in Derby county and it became a separate, modern Civil Parish in December, 1866. That Civil Parish was "Oakthorpe and Donisthorpe CP".
   
• In 1897, this Civil Parish was deemed a part of Leicestershire.
   
• You may contact the Joint Oakthorpe, Donisthorpe & Acresford Parish Council regarding civic or political matters, but they are NOT staffed to help you with family history searches.
   
• District governance is provided by the North West Leicestershire District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Swadlincote petty seeesion hearings.
   
• After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, this parish was in the Ashby De La Zouch Poorlaw Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1831	757
1861	392
1881	2,600