RAVENSTONE, Derbyshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"RAVENSTONE, a parish in the hundreds of West Goscote and Repton, counties Leicester and Derby, 3½ miles S.E. of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, its post town, and 2½ S.W. of the Coalville railway station. The village, which is of small extent, is chiefly agricultural. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in the collieries. There are also some brick-kilns. The parish is intersected by the road from Leicester to Ashby, and the railway from Swannington to Leicester runs about a mile distant from the village.

The surface is undulating, and the soil is a rich sandy loam upon a substratum of coal. The tithes have been commuted for land and a money payment under an Enclosure Act in 1770, and the glebe comprises 165 acres. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Lichfield, value £300, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient structure, with a spired tower containing three bells. The whole edifice has been put in an excellent state of repair.

The parochial charities produce about £881 per annum, chiefly the endowment of Rebecca Wilkins's almshouses, founded in 1712, for 32 single women above the age of 50 years. There is a National school for both sexes. The Wesleyans have a place of worship. Ravenstone Hall and Ravenstone House are the principal residences. Leonard Fosbrooke, Esq., is lord of the manor."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]