Seal

Overseal village is served by the Mobile Library on route 5, which stops at the Village Hall on Woodville Road every fourth Thursday in the mid-morning.

The Swadlincote Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

John SHEPHERD has a photograph of St. Matthew's churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in November, 2006.

Brian WEBSTER has a photograph of the graves of Sir Nigel Gresley and his wife on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2009. Sir Nigel GRESLEY was a railway engineer, one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). He was born in Edinburgh, but raised in Netherseal. He was knighted by King Edward VIII.

Michael SPENCER has put together a partial extract of Parish Register Burials of Netherseal for your use. Your corrections and additions are welcomed.

• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• No date is given for Netherseal's Church's construction, but it is identified as "in the Early English style."
   
• The church was restored in 1874.
   
• The church seats 300.
   
• Trevor RICKARD has a photograph of Netherseal's St. Peter's Church on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2010.
   
• Overseal had an earlier church that by 1622 was listed as "quite decayed and gone".
   
• Overseal's new church was consecrated on 26 July 1841 and dedicated to St. Matthew.
   

The Anglican parish registers for St. Peter's Church date from 1566 and are in good condition.

Brett PAYNE has a website with Netherseal and Overseal parish records.

The General Baptists had a chapel here in Netherseal before 1912.

The Overseal Baptist chapel was built in 1840 and rebuilt in 1897.

The Overseal Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1860 and rebuilt in 1895.

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Hartshorn sub-district of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.

"NETHER and OVER SEAL form a parish, containing two hamlets so respectively named, in the western division of the hundred of Goscote, county of Leicester, which part is nearly surrounded by Derbyshire; about five miles and a half S.W. from Ashby-de-la-Zouch. The parish is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas, held at Tutbury, every third Tuesday for the recovery of debts under 40s. The parish church is dedicated to St. Peter: the living is a rectory, in the patronage & incumbency of the Rev. W. N. Gresley. The parish contained, in 1831, 1,222 inhabitants."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

There is an area north of the village known as "Linton Heath". Sue ADAIR has a photograph of the "Linton Heath Village Sign" on Geo-graph, taken in September, 2005.

"Are we there yet, Mom?" J. SCRINE has a photograph of an Old Milepost on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2012.

Mat FASCIONE has a photograph of the Village Sign on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2008.

Netherseal is a village, a township and a parish that is at the southern-most tip of Derbyshire. It sits up against the border of Staffordshire on the north bank of the River Mease.

Overseal, in the heart of the National Forest, is a village and a Civil Parish that sits up against the border of Leicestershire.

• Geograph
• Flickr

John BARTHOLOMEW's "Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887" tells us: Netherseal, vil., Seal par., Leicestershire, 5½ miles SW. of Ashby de la Zouch; P.O.; in vicinity are the seats of Netherseal Hall and Netherseal Old Hall.

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

Overseal has an annual Civil War re-enactment event on the playing fields. Mark WALTON has a photograph of a Civil War Cannon demonstration on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2006.

J. THOMAS has a photograph of the The Seal Inn on Geo-graph, taken in June, 2019.

In the DRO, item D809 is a "visiting book" - a record of the years 1848-9 which belonged to the vicar. In it the vicar recorded details of the people he visited during those years.

Netherseal Hall was the property of Sir Robert GRESLEY, Baronet of Drakelowe, in 1911. The Hall dates from the reign of James I

In 1911, the Old Hall was occupied by William WORTHINGTON-WORTHINGTON J.P.

Paul BUCKINGHAM has a photograph of the Old Hall on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2007.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK286130 (Lat/Lon: 52.713909, -1.578079), Seal 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.

In 1912, Captain Kilner Charles BRAIZER-CREAGH of the Imperial Light Horse resided here in Neterhseal Hall. He fought in the Boer War, where he was wounded. He fought in the First World War, where he was mentioned in dispatches. He would later be appointed as Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Artillery. His second child, Rupert, would join the service and reach the rank of Major General.

The War Memorial sits on a traffic island at the junction of Main St. with Church St. between the village hall and the primary school. There are 18 names on the monument.

"Bikeboy" has a photograph of Netherseal's War Memorial Cross by St. Peter's Church on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2015.

A World War II Memorial gravestone stands in St. Mathew's Churchyard in Overseal, commemorating: Geoffrey William LEWIS, RAF Vol. Rsrv., Flying Officer, sqdn. 139, who died 11 May, 1944. Husband of Dorothy Mary LEWIS, of Mountsorrel, Leicestershire.

The parish name often appears as "Saile" in old records. The name appears as "Scel" in the 1086 Domesday Book. From the Old English "scegel" according to A. D. MILLS ("Dictionary of English Place Names, 1991").

Jane TAYLOR of Redcar reports this announcement in the Matlock Mercury of 14 March 1842: "On the 5th inst., at Netherseal, Leicestershire, by the Rev. Sir Nigel GRESLEY, Bart., R. Cunningham DIDHAM, Esq., of Ryde, Isle of Wight, to Hannah, third daughter of the late Rev. John ROBY, rector of Congerston."

• This place was an ancient Township in Leicester county and it became a modern Civil Parish in December, 1866.
   
• On 30 Sept. 1897, this parish, formerly in Leicesteshire, was transferred to Derbyshire.
   
• This parish was in the ancient West Goscote Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• District governance is provided by the South Derbyshire District Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Swadlincote petty session hearings.
   
• The parish had almshouses for nine poor people which were founded in 1699 by Richard JOHNSON.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Poorlaw Union.

Year	Inhabitants
1831	1,222
1891	1,513

In an 1864 Will of John SUNNETT (Sinnett) of Stapenhill mentions (among others):

1. brother Samuel SUNNETT of Netherseal.

In 1899, Thomas CARTER of this parish left a Will.

In Overseal, the Lord of the Manor built a school next to the church in 1841.

A Public Elementary School (mixed and infants) was built in Overseal for 320 students in 1907.

Another Public Elementary School (mixed) was built in Overseal in 1875 and enlarged in 1899 for 216 students.

A Public Elementary School (mixed) was built in Netherseal in 1870 and enlarged in 1890 for 116 students.