Leicestershire county page

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Leicestershire Towns & Parishes

Nearby places

Smeeton Westerby

Description in 1871:
"SMEETON-WESTERBY, a township-chapelry in Kibworth-Beauchamp parish, Leicester; ½ a mile S of Kibworth r. station, 1 NE of the Grand Union canal, and 5¼ NW of Market -Harborough. Post town, Kibworth-Harcourt, under Leicester. Real property, £3,293. Pop., 533. Houses, 114. The property is much subdivided. The canal here burst its banks in Sept. 1865, and was emptied for a distance of 10 miles. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £200. Patron, the Rector of Kibworth. The church was built in 1849."
John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-72

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 Christ.
  
  
• Christ Church was built in 1849.
  
  
• The church seats 380.
  
  

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Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1852. For records before that, see Kibworth Beauchamp.
  
  
• The church is in the rural deanery of Gartree (second portion).
  
  
• The General Baptists, Calvanists and Primitive Methodists all had places of worship here.
  
  
• The Primitive Methodists discontinued their worship here by 1862.
  
  

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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.

Smeeton Westerby is a parish, a township and a village in Leicestershire, on the north side of the Union Canal. It is about 92 miles north of London, 9 miles southeast of Leicester city and 6 miles northwest of Market Harborough. The parish covers just over 1,300 acres.

The village sits in the hills just north of the Grand Union Canal. If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, it is probably easiest to take the A6 trunk road southeast out of Leicester city. At Kibworth Harcourt, turn south and continue to Smeeton Westerby.
  
  

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History

• In the 1800s and early 1900s, the people in this parish were employed mostly as frame-work knitters weaving worsted stockings.
  
  
• The parish was largely used for grazing land.
  
  

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Maps

• The national grid reference is SP 6792.
  
  
• 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

• The place was an ancient township of Leicester county and became a Civil Parish in late 1866.
  
  
• This township was long a portion of Kibworth Beauchamp Civil Parish.
  
  
• The parish is in the ancient Gartree Hundred in the southern division of the county.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Market Harborough Poorlaw Union.
  
  

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Population

Year	Inhabitants
1841	567
1871	486
1881	390
1891	342
1901	344
1911	336
1921	302
1931	343
1951	321
1961	275

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Schools

• The parish had an infant school here in 1849.
  
  
• A National School (Public Elementary School) was built here in 1862 on the site of the Primitive Methodist chapel.
  
  

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