Drayton
Description in 1871:
"DRAYTON, a township in Bringhurst parish, Leicester; near the river Welland, 2 miles W of Rockingham. Pop., 126. Houses, 29. There is a Wesleyan chapel. George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, was a native."
John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales", 1870-72
Note: The are at least 5 other Drayton villages or parishes in England. Make sure that you are researching the right one.
- The parish was in the Great Easton subdistrict of the Uppingham Registration District.
- The 1851 Census for Leicestershire has been indexed by the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society. The whole index is available on microfiche. The society has also published it in print.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
- The Anglican parish chapel is dedicated to Saint James.
- This was an ancient Chapel of Ease, but it was in ruins by the early 1800s.
- The old chapel was used as a bakehouse in 1881, but devine services were held in the old Nave.
- The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel here before 1849.
- For parish register entries, see Bringhurst parish.
- The chapel was in the rural deanery of Gartree (third portion).
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
- The parish was in the Great Easton subdistrict of the Uppingham Registration District.
Drayton is a parish, a township and a small village about 97 miles north of London, 9 miles south of Uppingham (in Rutland county) and 7 miles northeast of Market Harborough. The parish is bounded on the south by the River Welland which is flowing east to The Wash. The parish covers 733 acres.
If you are planning a visit:
- This parish is off the major highway routes. By automobile, take the B664 arterial road between Uppingham and Market Harborough to Mebourne. There are two country lanes that lead east to Drayton.
- Nearly all the land in the parish was used for pasture.
- George FOX, the founder of The Society of Friends (Quakerism), was born here.
- The national grid reference is SP 8392.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has 2.5 inches to the mile scale.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- The parish was in the southern division of the county in the ancient Gartree Hundred (or Wapentake).
- This place had been a chapelry and a township in Bringhurst parish for centuries. Some time after 1866 the township became a Civil Parish of its own right. An 1881 Kelly's Directory of Leicester does not record it as a Civil Parish yet.
- After the Poor Law Amendment Act reforms of 1834, the parish became part of the Uppingham (Rutland) Poorlaw Union.
- Bastardy cases would be heard in the East Norton petty session hearings.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1841 |
148 |
| 1871 |
115 |
| 1881 |
137 |
| 1891 |
105 |
| 1901 |
93 |
| 1911 |
101 |
| 1921 |
97 |
| 1931 |
121 |
| 1951 |
99 |
| 1961 |
112 |
- In 1849, Mrs. Francis WIGNELL ran a ladies' boarding school here. This was a day school by 1881, run by Susanna WIGNELL.
- In 1912, the children of this parish attended school in Easton Magna, just to the east.
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[Created: 24-July-2009 - Louis R. Mills]
