Leicestershire county page

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Leicestershire Towns & Parishes

Nearby places

Sproxton

Description in 1871:
"SPROXTON, a parish, with a village, in Melton-Mowbray district, Leicester; 4½ miles NE of Saxby r. station, and 8 NE by E of Melton-Mowbray. Post town, Melton-Mowbray. Acres, 2,360. Real property, £3,362. Pop., 455. Houses, 85. The manor belongs to the Duke of Rutland. The living is a vicarage, united with Saltby, in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £282. Patron, the Duke of Rutland. The church is old. There is a Wesleyan chapel."
John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-1872

Note: there is another Sproxton in the Yorkshire North Riding.

Census

• The parish was in the Waltham sub-district of the Melton Mowbray Registration District.
  
  
• In 1935, the parish was transfered to the new Melton and Belvoir 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 Bartolomew.
  
  
• The church construction date is unreported. It appears to be early Norman.
  
  
• The church was restored in 1882-84.
  
  
• In the churchyard is an ancient stone cross, once used as a foot-bridge over a small stream.
  
  
• The church seats 220.
  
  
• The parish also has a small hermit's cell with a stone inscription dated 1805.
  
  

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Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1635.
  
  
• The church was in the rural deanery of Framland (first portion).
  
  
• The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel built here before 1849.
  
  

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Civil Registration

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
  
  
• The parish was in the Waltham sub-district of the Melton Mowbray Registration District.
  
  
• In 1935, the parish was transfered to the new Melton and Belvoir Registration District.
  
  

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Description and Travel.

Sproxton is a parish, a township and a village in the northeast of the county in the Wold Hills. The parish is about 121 miles north of London and 9 miles northeast of Melton Mobray. The parish covers about 1,500 acres. Lincolnshire forms the eastern border, Saltby parish lies to the north and Stonesby parish to the east.

If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, from the A607 trunk road, turn east at Waltham to arrive at Sproxton.
  
  

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History

• A good portion of the parish was pasture, but most of the rest was farmland.
  
  

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Maps

• The national grid reference is SK 8524.
  
  
• 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 parish was in the Framland Hundred (Wapentake) in the northern (or eastern) division of the county.
  
  
• This parish was an "ancient parish" of Leicestershire and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
  
  
• In April, 1936, the parish of Sproxton was enlarged by the abolition of Bescaby, Saltby and Stonesby Civil Parishes.
  
  
• In April, 1965, boundary re-alignments gave 3 acres to Skillington Civil Parish in Lincolnshire and 1 acre each to Stoke Rochford and Wyville Civil Parishes, also in Lincolnshire.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

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

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Population

Year	Inhabitants
1841	394
1861	455
1871	408
1881	335
1891	336
1901	306
1911	282
1921	316
1931	287

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Schools

• The Public Elementary School (National School) was built in 1871 for 100 students.
  
  

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