Swithland
Description in 1871:
"SWITHLAND, a parish, with a village, in Barrow-upon-Soar district, Leicester; 2½ miles SW of Mount-sorrel, and 4 WSW of Sileby r. station. It has a post-office under Loughborough. Acres, 2,180. Real property, £2,018; of which £37 are in blue-slate quarries. Pop., 255. Houses, 53. The manor, with S. Hall, belongs to the Earl of Lanesborough. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £300. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is early English. There is a Wesleyan chapel."
[John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-72]
- Swithland was in the Quordon subdistrict of the Barrow-on-Soar 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:
Census
Year |
Piece No. |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2280 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2520 |
- The Anglican parish church for Swithland is dedicated to Saint Leonard.
- The church was constructed during the 14th century.
- The church seats 250.
- The Anglican parish register dates from 1676.
- The church was in the East Akeley rural deanery.
- The Weslyean Methodists had a chapel here built in 1828.
- Swithland was in the Quordon subdistrict of the Barrow-on-Soar registration district.
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
Swithland is a village and a parish 6 miles south of Loughborough, just 3 miles west of Mountsorrel and 8 miles north-west of Leicester city. The parish covers 1,140 acres.
The village stands across a small stream at the east end. If you are planning a visit:
- By automobile, take the A6 trunk road north out of Leicester city for about 7 miles. Turn west at Rothley and follow the county roads out to Swithland.
- The local pub, Griffin Inn, has a long history and a website.
- A great deal of blue slate was quarried here, but the quarries were abandoned by 1912.
- Reservoirs were created here to serve the population of Leicester city.
- Swithland was designated a conservation area in 1993.
- Swithland Hall was the seat of the Earl of Lanesborough. It stands on a hill and affords many nice views of the surrounding territory. The initial building was consumed by fire in 1822. A new Hall was partially completed in 1834 and finished in 1852.
- Near the Hall stands an ancient cross which had stood in the market place at Montsorrel.
- The national grid reference is SK 5513.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- This place was an ancient parish in Leicester county and became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
- The parish was in the ancient West Goscote Hundred in the Northern (or Mid) division of the county.
- In Oct., 1912, this Civil Parish was reduced by 5 acres to enlarge Rothley Civil Parish.
- In April, 1968, this civil parish gained 12 acres from Newton Linford Civil Parish.
- As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this parish became part of the Barrow-upon-Soar Poorlaw Union.
- Bastardy cases were heard at the Loughborough petty sessional hearings.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1841 |
306 |
| 1871 |
255 |
| 1881 |
246 |
| 1891 |
213 |
| 1901 |
195 |
| 1911 |
182 |
| 1921 |
190 |
| 1931 |
168 |
- A Free School was erected here in 1843 for 58 children and supported by the Earl of Lanesborough.
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[Last updated: 21-November-2011 - Louis R. Mills]
