West Langton

Description in 1871:
"LANGTON (WEST), a township in Church-Langton parish, Leicester; 4 miles N by W of Market-Harborough. Real property, £2,486. Pop., 82. Houses, 15. Langton Hall is the seat of Miss Ord."
John Marius WILSON's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales", 1870-72

Note: this is NOT an ancient parish in Leicester county. It is a township formed into a CIvil Parish in December, 1866.

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:
   

Census Year	Piece No.
1841	H.O. 107 / 589
1861	R.G. 9 / 2251
1871	R.G. 10 / 3226
1891	R.G. 12 / 2492

Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary.
   
• Near the church are the remains of West Langton Abbey.
   
• The church seats 50.
   

Church Records

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1695.
   
• The church is in the rural deanery of Gartree (first portion).
   

Civil Registration

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

Description and Travel.

West Langton is a parish, a township and a small village in Leicestershire, not far from Northamptonshire. It is about 92 miles north of London, 8 miles southeast of Leicester city and 4.5 miles north of Market Harborough. The parish covers just 766 acres.

The village sits in the hills just southwest of Church Langton and due west of East Langton. The village, as such, is too small to appear on most large-scale maps. If you are planning a visit:

• By automobile, it is probably easiest to take the B6047 arterial road north out of Market Harborough. Turn left at Tur Langton.
   

History

• The parish was largely used for grazing land.
   
• The Saddington Reservoir was built between 1793 and 1797. The southern part lies in West Langton parish. It was built as a catchment basin for the Grand Union Canal. The reservoir covers about 60 acres.
   

Manors

• West Langton Hall was "an ancient stone building" in Kelly's 1881 Directory of Leicestershire, standing on an eminence. The owner was R. WARNER, who was also lord of the manor.
   
• The Hall stands just west of the village off of West Langton Road.
   
• Jo TURNER has a photograph of Langton Hall on Geo-graph, taken in July, 1977.
   

Maps

• See our Maps page for additional resources.
   

Politics and Governance

• The place was an ancient chapelry and township of Leicester county. It became a modern Civil Parish in December, 1866.
   
• The parish is in the ancient Gartree Hundred in the southern division of the county.
   
• On 25 March, 1885, the parish was reduced to enlarge both East Langton Civil Parish and Thorpe Langton Civil Parish.
   
• You can contact the local Parish Council for political information, but they do NOT have the time or resources to provide family history research.
   

Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• The Hanbury Charity (from 1767) donated beef to the poor each year, as well as medical relief and nursing.
   
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Market Harborough petty session hearings held every other Tuesday.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reforms, this parish became part of the Market Harborough Poorlaw Union.
   

Population

Year	Inhabitants
1841	71
1871	62
1881	60
1891	71
1901	83
1911	95
1921	83
1931	89

Schools

• The Rev. William HANBURY founded and endowed a Free School here in 1767. The first actual school building went up in 1873.