Leicestershire county page

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Leicestershire Towns & Parishes

Nearby places

Laughton

Description in 1871:
"LAUGHTON, a parish in Market-Harborough district, Leicester; on the Grand Union canal, 2½ miles N of Theddingworth r. station, and 5 W by N of Market-Harborough. Post-town, Theddingworth, under Rugby. Acres, 1,109. Real property, £2,116. Pop., 152. Houses, 37. The property is subdivided. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £247. Patron, the Rev. G. B. Baker. The church is old but good, has a bell-turret, and contains numerous mural tablets. There are an Independent chapel, a free school, and charities £17."
John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-72,

Note: There is at least 5 Laughtons in England, including nearby Lincolnshire. Make sure you are researching the correct one!

Census

• The parish was in the Market Harborough sub-district of the Market Harborough 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:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Luke.
  
  
• The date of construction is reported as the 13th century, but no precise date is given.
  
  
• The church was thoroughly restored 1880 and the chancel was rebuilt.
  
  
• The church seats 80.
  
  

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Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1754.
  
  
• The church is in the rural deanery of Gartree (first portion).
  
  
• A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1859, but was not in use in 1879.
  
  

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Civil Registration

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
  
  
• The parish was in the Market Harborough sub-district of the Market Harborough Registration District.
  
  

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Description and Travel.

Laughton is a parish and a village in Leicestershire. It is 12 miles southeast of Leicester city, 5.5 miles west of Market Harborough and 98 miles north of London. The Grand Union Canal passes near the south boundary of the parish. The parish covers just over 1,080 acres.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, it is probably easiest to take the A427 trunk road west out of Market Harborough and turn right onto the A50 arterial at Husbands Bosworth, then right again after about 3 miles at Mowsley. Pass through Mowsley to proceed to Laughton.
  
  
• The Grand Union Canal passes through the south of the parish.
  
  

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History

• The village was mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book.
  
  
• This was prime grazing land for over 1,000 years.
  
  

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Manors

• The webpage author could find no mention of a manor house or hall at Laughton.
  
  

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Maps

• The national grid reference is SP 6589.
  
  
• You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has 2.5 inches to the mile scale.
  
  
• See our Maps page for additional resources.
  
  

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Politics and Governance

• This place was an ancient parish in Leicester county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
  
  
• The parish is in the ancient Gartree Hundred in the southern division of the county.
  
  
• The parish has a small-enough population that they have decided to forgo a formal Parish Council and instead hold Parish Meetings open to the entire community.
  
  
• The parish is included in the Harborough District Council.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• The Common Land was enclosed here in 1663.
  
  
• The built its own workhouse in 1803 to serve 20 adults and 10 children. This was abandoned when the Poorlaw Union was formed (below).
  
  
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, this parish became part of the Market Harborough Poorlaw Union.
  
  

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Population

Year	Inhabitants
1801	162
1811	152
1841	180
1851	165
1871	136
1881	136
1891	108
1901	107
1911	115
1921	87
1931	89

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Schools

• There was a chool in Laughton as early as 1634, A Free School (later a National School) was built here in 1853 but could only serve 12 students.
  
  
• By 1910, the children of this parish were attending school in nearby Mowsley. The old school building was acquired after World War II by the Laughton parish meeting group and is now the village hall.
  
  

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