Knighton

The Knighton Branch Library was built on Clarendon Park road.

• The parish was in the Wigston sub-district of the Blaby Registration District.
   
• In 1892, due to the Civil Parish being abolished, the area was placed in the West Leicester sub-district of the Leicester 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 church is dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene.
   
• The ecclesiastical parish was formed in August, 1878, from that of St. Margaret's parish in Leicester city.
   
• The church seats 600.
   
• Mat FASCIONE has a photograph of St. Mary Magdalene Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009.
   
• Mat FASCIONE also has a photograph of the Lychgate on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2009. Here your coffin would wait, protected from the elements, while the bearers gathered.
   
• The ecclesiastical parish of St. John the Baptist was formed in 1917. The church was in Clarendon Park Road and was erected in 1885 as a Chapel of Ease to St. Mary Magdalene's.
   
• St. John's Church seats 800.
   
• A Chapel of Ease to St. John the Baptist was built in 1898 and consecrated as St. Micheal and All Saints. It seated 560.
   
• A third Chapel of Ease was St. Guthlac's Chapel in South Knighton, partly erected in 1912.
   
• The Church of the Holy Apostle. Fosse Road South, was consecrated in 1924. It could seat 600.
   

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1650.  The register for St. John the Baptist dates from 1885.
   
• The church is in the rural deanery of Leicester.
   
• The village also had a Weslyan Methodist chapel by 1849.
   
• Tony ELLIS provides a photograph of the Evangelical Free Church on Geo-graph, taken in 2008. This is a fairly recently constructed church.
   
• Mat FASCIONE has a photograph of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2007.
   

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837, but the Civil Parish didn't exist until after 1866.
   
• The parish was in the Wigston sub-district of the Blaby Registration District.
   
• In 1892, due to the Civil Parish being abolished, the area was placed in the West Leicester sub-district of the Leicester Registration District.
   

Knighton was a village and a parish 94 miles north of London and about 2 miles south-east of Leicester city. The parish consisted of the townships of Knighton, South Knighton and Stoneygate. The parish covered 1,600 acres in 1881.

The village has been re-absorbed by Leicester city as a suburb. If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, take the A6 trunk road south-east out of Leicester about 2 miles. A road to the right leads to the Knighton district.
   
• Kate JEWELL provides a photograph of Knighton Road on Geo-graph, taken in 2005.
   

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• In the 1700s and 1800s many of the inhabitants were the manufacturers and professional people of Leicester.
   
• Ashley DACEN has a photograph of the Wheatsheaf Works on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2011. This was, for a time, the largest shoe factory in the world.
   
• David MARTIN has a photograph of a Stairway to Nowhere on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015. Surely this must be an historic structure!
   
• J. THOMAS has a photograph of The Cradock Arms on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2014.
   
• J. THOMAS also has a photograph of the Aberdale Inn on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2014.
   

In 1849, Knighton Hall, was the seat of Sir Edmund Cradock HARTOPP, Bart., who was lord of the manor and chief land owner.

• See our Maps page for additional resources.
   

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK604015 (Lat/Lon: 52.607635, -1.11022), Knighton 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.

There is a white marble tablet in a wooden frame inside St. Mary Magdalene Church that is a War Memorial. All three men on the plaque have the surname SMITH and all three died in the First World War.

• This place was an ancient Chapelry in St. Margaret's parish in Leicester and became a separate, modern Civil Parish in December, 1866.
   
• The parish was in the ancient Guthlaxton Hundred in the southern division of the county.
   
• In March, 1896, this parish was reabsorbed into Leicester Civil Parish which was re-incorporated at that time.
   

• The Memorial Cottage Almshouses, in Knighton drive, were erected by Miss Sarah BARLOW for four poor widows, each of -whom receives 5S. weekly (in 1925).
   
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Leicester petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Blaby Poorlaw Union.
   
• In 1892, this parish was abolished and the Knighton district placed under the Leicester Poorlaw Union.
   

Year	Inhabitants
1841	465
1851	494
1861	641
1871	928
1881	1,813

A National School was erected in 1840.