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LEICESTERSHIRE |
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Contents |
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Leicestershire Towns & Parishes |
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Nearby Places |
Description in 1877:
"Hinckley is a parish, an ancient market town, the head of a Poor law Union, and a County Court District and a polling-place for the southern division of the county; it is mostly in Sparkenhoe Hundred, its township extending into the county of Warwick, forming there the hamlet of Hydes Pasture. Hinckley is extensively engaged in the hosiery manufacture, and is situated more than a mile east of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, nearly two miles north of Watling Street road, 14 miles S.W. of Leicester, 5 miles E.N.E. of Nuneaton, 13 miles N.N.E. of Coventry, and 100 miles N.W. by N. of London. Hinckley parish which comprises the townships of Dadlington (in Market Bosworth Union), Hinckley, and Stoke Golding, in 1871 contained 7780 persons, living in 1711 houses, on 6200 acres; and at the same time Hinckley township which consists of Hinckley containing 6779; the hamlet of Hyde's Pasture, in Warwickshire, containing 42; and the hamlet of Wykin, containing 81 persons, had a total of 6902 inhabitants living in 1516 houses. The population of the township was only 4216 in 1821, but it had increased to 6448 in 1841 and decreased to 6177 in 1851; but in 1861 it had again increased to 6461. The increase of the population during the last decennial period 'is attributed to the improvement in the hosiery trade, and the increase of inhabited houses (121) to the establishment of building societies.' Dadlington and Stoke Golding were constituted separate ecclesiastical parishes in 1865, as noticed with those places. Good turnpike roads to Leicester, Ashby, Nuneaton, Coventry, &c. diverge from the town; and the South Leicestershire Railway which is a branch of the London and North-Western Railway, from Nuneaton to Wigston, near Leicester has a commodious station here. This line was opened in 1862 between Nuneaton and Hinckley , and the remainder was completed early in 1863. The stocking frame was introduced here as early as 1640 by Mr. W. Iliff, and, excepting Leicester, more stockings are made here than at any other place in the kingdom. In 1853 Mr. Thomas Payne introduced and applied steam-power in the manufacture of hosiery, &c. in this town, and there are now many factories here in which the frames are worked by steam, and fancy goods, as well as stockings, are manufactured."
[White's History, Gazeteer and Directory of the Counties of Leicester and Rutland. 1877]
For method of obtaining copy certificates see the Civil Registration section on our Leicestershire page.
The Hinckley Times website has a Century of News section featuring stories from each decade of the 20th century taken from the paper's archives.
The Rossbret Workhouse site includes a page for the Hinckley Union which includes details of officers and staff of the union in 1899.
[Last updated: 30-July-2009 - Louis R. Mills]