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       Harby History Fact File

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Dates and happenings

200 million years ago Fossils called "devil's toenails are found in the ground around Harby dating back to the Jurassic period. Click on the picture to read more.
ICE AGE HARBY We all know about global warming, how cutting down the trees, burning coal, oil and gas is causing the world to heat up. We may not know so well that over the last million years the world was in the ice ages. The temperature and climate around Harby varied from being under glaciers like Greenland today to being warm enough for the hippopotamus. The cause is uncertain; possible due to the earth getting nearer and then further away from the sun as it circled in space.  In the early ice ages the glaciers covered north and central Britain down as far as the Thames. In the last ice age, from around 100,000 years ago, the ice came into north and east Lincolnshire from Scotland and Scandinavia (the North Sea was dry land then as so much water had turned into snow and ice and was lying on the land) and into north Nottinghamshire from the Lake District and the Pennines. Mammoth, reindeer and Neanderthal man lived around here, leaving evidence of their presence by their bones and distinctive stone tools. Then modern people, just like ourselves, came around 40,000 BC, living among other places at Creswell Crags in north Nottinghamshire where they left examples of art in the caves. The arctic conditions ended around 8,000 BC. What evidence for all this is there from Harby? The answer is the bits and pieces of flint and other foreign stone that we find in our flowerbeds. The glaciers brought these from miles away and left them here when they melted.
2,000 BC A flint arrowhead, probably lost in  hunting by one of the first farmers in the Vale of Belvoir, has been found near Waltham Lane south of Harby.  It is about 2 centimeters wide and fitted onto a wooden arrowshaft.  It has a flat but very sharp cutting edge that caused the animal it hit to die by bleeding from the cut it made

About 50 to 400  AD  During Roman times there was a small Roman settlement just to the northeast of Harby and another  perhaps no more than a little farm, towards the old railway-line south of Harby. This is shown by Roman pottery found in the fields. A stone head of Roman date but from the practice of people before the Romans came has been found in the south-west of the village.  Click on the picture to read the full story.

About 850  Harby is founded as a Danish settlement. The settlement is called a "by" or settlement in the Scandinavian language and "heorde" from the Scandinavian word meaning herdsman, the village of the herdsmen. There are now two places called Harby, us and Harby in Nottinghamshire. Going back in time there were two others, one in Derbyshire and a second in Nottinghamshire. It was once thought that the name came from Hjortr, the name of the leader of a Danish settlement band. But it seems too unusual to have so many places with the same leaders name. So the herdsmen name is now thought the more likely for all these settlements. You can read about it in the book by Barrie Cox,  published in  2002  by the  English Place-name Society at Nottingham University "The Place-names of Leicestershire, part two, Framland Hundred". 

1086 Domesday Book is compiled for William the Conqueror. It is  written in Latin and is the first record about Harby.  When translated this is what it says.

In the Wapentake of Framland 

Robert of Tosny owns 17 carucates of land at Harby. In the time of King Edward it was 14 ploughs. Three of these carucates are held directly by Robert with 8 slaves. 13 of the ploughs are leased to 24 freemen, 7 villagers and 3 smallholders. There are meadows measuring five furlongs long and 4 furlongs wide. This land now brings in £5 a year; it used to be worth £4.

Robert of Bucy owns1 carucate of land at Harby and leases it to Gerard. The land takes one plough to work it. Gerard sub-leases it to 2 freemen and 3 small holders. Its value is 5 shillings.

The Domesday Book tells us that Harby is spelled both Herdebi and Hertebi. It is in the county of Leicestershire and in the division called the wapentake of Framland. The land is owned by two French noblemen, Robert of Tosny and Robert of Bucy. There are 18 carucates of land which is about 2,160 acres. Robert of Tosny has 2,040 acres. In king Edward's time, before William the Conqueror took over England, it took 14 plough teams to work this land. A plough team was the plough and eight oxen to pull it. Robert has a central farmstead that he runs himself with eight men. The rest of the land is let out to 34 men. The meadows of the village measure five furlongs by four furlongs. The rent is now five pounds, it used to be four pounds. Robert of Bucy owns 120 acres and lets the land to Girard. Girard then sublets it to five men. There is one plough team working it. It has a rental value of five shillings. The people of Harby are put into four levels of social status, from highest to lowest, freeman, villagers, smallholders and slaves.

Putting all these people together it makes up 47 working men. We can estimate that each working man had a family of a wife and two children. That would make a total population of Harby in 1086 of about 150 men, women and children. There were nearly as many oxen. And King William could expect to get five pounds and five shillings a year from the village.

For more details of Robert of Tosny click here

About 1350 Present church began. The study of parish churches is a fascinating hobby and Harby St Mary the Virgin church offers hours of interest. There are the human heads to see on the carved corbel stones holding up the rafters for the roof. At the top of the tower is a frieze of carvings. Click  to go to more details about these.

The nave

 The tower

Hoodmould stops

As well as the corbel human heads inside there are human heads around the doors and windows all round the outside of the church. You can find this one wearing a mediaeval hat on the north side.
1617 The Reverend Thomas Daffy becomes Rector of Harby. He becomes famous for his restorative drink, Daffye's Elixir which he claims will cure everything.  Click here for more of the story.
1622  A description of Harby by  William Burton sets out  who owns the land, describes the church and says that in old deeds it is called Herdeby.
1645 King Charles I at Belvoir Castle. Wiverton Hall just north of Harby was held by the kings' men from 1643 to 1645, controlling movement across this part of the Vale.   The book  "A Cavalier Stronghold - a romance of the Vale of Belvoir" written by Mrs Chaworth Musters in 1890 (who lived at Wiverton Hall) gives this picture of the old gateway.
1666 Rev Thomas Daffy is removed from the good living at Harby  to Redmile which was less well off by the Countess of Rutland. She was a  lady of puritan tastes and  took a dislike to Daffy for some reason which has not been recorded.
1700  Gravestones in the churchyard become more common after 1700. Click here for the churchyard survey.

1777  John Prior produces a map of Harby showing a windmill to the south

There is a most interesting map of Harby of this time, held in the Leicestershire Record Office, which shows exactly where the fields were and the direction in which they were ploughed called ridge and furrow. Other old maps show windmills in different places from the windmill that we can see today.  This recently drawn plan summarizes all the information.  It is reproduced from Hartley, Robert F 1987, The Mediaeval Earthworks of North-east Leicestershire.  Copyright remains with Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Records Service.

1782 to 1785, George Crabbe  was chaplain to the Duke of Rutland  in Belvoir Castle.  His poem "The Village" draws on his observations of life around Harby and in the Vale of Belvoir. Click  here to read the poem:- 1790 The large open fields of Harby are enclosed and many hedges put up.  This revolutionizes farming. The Wong field by the Church is an example of how the old land divisions were altered, click here  to read about it. 1795 John Nichols publishes volume 1, part 1 of "The History and Antiquities of  the County of Leicester". This includes  an account of "The Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir" written by the Rev George Crabbe, the same man as wrote the poem "The Village" referred to above. In 1795 he was  vicar at Muston and had been in the Vale of Belvoir since 1782, including a time at Stathern. He mentions Harby. Click here to read his account.  1798 Canal opened . Throsby wrote of Harby, The principal land owner of the lordship of Harby is . . . the Duke of Rutland. It is about to be inclosed and contains about 1800 acres of land, clayey, but tolerably fruitful. The village which stands about 4 1/2 miles from Belvoir and 8 from Melton Mowbray, contains 68 houses and the Rector's new building. The church is tolerably decent, but the sparrows find in it room to rest. It has a heavy tower, three aisles, 4 bells and an old font. The chancel is large. In it is a stone to the memory of John Major, rector 35 years, who died in 1739, aged 67. The register begins in 1700. In five years upon an average the baptisms are 40 and burials 38. In 1815 John Nichols wrote this description of our village in his book "The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire". Harby, like many other villages in the Vale of Belvoir is destitute of woods and streams; no high road leads through or beside it. A heavy clay spreads over every acre in the parish and the uniform operations of husbandry give a sameness to the country, which a stranger might view with disgust; but cultivation has made it fruitful, and its inhabitants feel no envy at the variety of other soils, where the sterility of one part may balance the luxuriance of another. Industry here makes the prospect, and the produce alone is the beauty of the soil. There are about 1800 acres in the parish; and, whilst the field continued open, the method of tillage was, first year fallow; second, barley and wheat; third, beans and pease. The families of Harby are 60, its inhabitants 322, among whom are many small freeholders. There is no mansion or antient building in the village; but the present rector has lately built a neat and convenient house, the probable residence of his successors. Click here to see the pages of the book on Harby.  They take some time to download onto your screen so please be patient waiting for them to come. And also be patient because John Nichols wrote a lot in Latin!

Harby and the Vale of Belvoir about 1800	Harby village about 1800	Harby Church about 1800
Click on the picture for a larger version
1828 The windmill is built by the Grantham canal, of brick with seven storeys. 1832 William Cobbet wrote that Harby had 457 inhabitants. 1836 The Granary is built which you can still see by the canal and mill.   1839 The Duke and Duchess of St Albans are married in Harby Church on May 24th. 1846  Click here for an account of the village in 1846. 1847 The Methodist chapel is built, now the Vale Christian Centre. Click here for further details. Click here for an account of the Methodists in Harby from 1769 to 1909.  1850 Click here for an account of Harby up to 1850 written by an inhabitant. 1860 Harby School is built. 1863 a description of Harby by William White says that there were 655 inhabitants. 1871 the census of 1871 gave the population of the village as 539. Click here for details 1876 the church underwent extensive restoration, click here for details. Click on the picture for a view after the restoration was  finished.                                                                                      1877 for a description of the village in 1877 click here. See also the website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/Ag/maps/harby.htm.  1879 Railway opened 1888  The Ordnance Survey map of Harby shows the village over 100 years ago with the three windmills and the Vale Brewery.  Click on www.old-maps.co.uk,  and enter the details for Harby, Leicestershire or click on http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.asp?sheetid=4764&mapx=1141&mapy=860&mapzm=2. 1890 The school was thriving and here is a photograph of the pupils and teachers. Click on the photo for the full size image, and please be patient while it opens.   And click on this thumbnail for all the pupils and teachers in front of the school around 1900.     1904 Harby St Mary’s Church, seen from the east. Click on the picture  to see the full size image. From an old postcard kindly loaned by Neil Cunnington. The vestry extension on the left of the photograph was built the year before and a new organ installed at the same time. The postcard was sent to Netherfield in Nottingham at 5 pm on 26 June 1909.  1907 Above - HARBY SCHOOL IN 1907. The School was built in 1860. The spire on the front of the building is gone now and there is an extension. This postcard was posted in Harby at 5.15 pm on 17 August 1910 to Nottingham . From a postcard in the collection of Neil Cunnington. 1909 Click here for some details of the Methodist chapel in 1909. 1911 Kelly's Directory says that there were 603 people living in Harby. Click here for an account of life on the canal around this time. 1920s Click here for the reminiscences of Harby in the 1920s recorded in the 1970s by Eli Coy.  After the first world war of 1914 - 1918 war the old cross was reused as a memorial to the 19 people from Harby who had given their lives. Click on the small picture for the full size view about 1920. Since this picture was taken the names of the two people from Harby who died in the second world war have been added. Houses have been built behind the cross. 1936 Canal closed 1938 Harby windmill goes out of use. 1942 Langar airfield built in the Second World War. Little happened in the area between Langar and Harby before the second world war. There seems to have been a church somewhere, dedicated to Saint Ethelburga, and there were activities towards Bingham to do with Wiverton Hall in the Civil War. Then in 1942 George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. were at work constructing an airfield. From its beginning, until 5 years after it closed as an airfield, the firm of AV Roe had workshops there. At first they were set up to test and repair the Lancaster bombers that came with the Royal Air Force 207 Squadron. This squadron moved to Spilsby in October 1943. In its place came the United States of America Air Force 435 Troup Carrier Group with C - 47 planes and later 441 TCG which supplied paratroops in the Netherlands from July to September 1944. The Royal Air Force came back in October 1944 with its 1669 Heavy Conversion Unit until March 1945. The airfield then closed in 1946 but opened again in 1951 to serve the only Royal Canadian Air Force base in the UK, their primary base in Europe. The Canadians stayed until 1963.    Harby windmill had its sails and top storey removed to make it less of a danger to planes taking off   with their heavy cargo of bombs. The airfield was closely connected with Harby and indeed was often referred to as Harby airfield. After the Canadians left part of the airfield was taken over by the firm of agricultural machinery makers John Deere. In 1967 the Nottingham Radio Control Society began to use the airfield for their model aircraft. The British Parachute School began to use Langar in 1977. It has 21,000 jumps a year and is open everyday except Christmas Day.  The Memorial to the RAF 207 Squadron was dedicated in 1994.

1940 The sails top of Harby windmill removed as they were a danger to aircraft landing in the Langar airfield.

1944. Great activity was observed around June 6 th on Langar airfield for D Day although nobody knew till later what was happening. Click here to read a poem written about it at the time.

1956  Mr Kemp is recorded talking about life in Harby http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S56U00005C01.

1960 Railway closed

1963 The New Rectory is built.  

1977 The St Ivel cheese factory in Harby opened. Click here for an account of Stilton cheese.

1979  There was talk of a coal mine at Harby but this was eventually put at Asfordby. Click here for an account of Harby then.

HARBY PLACES

We are working to find the origins for the various street and place names of Harby.  If you have information or ideas to add please contact us leslie.cram@harby.co.uk

Boyers Orchard - we think the orchard where the council houses were built some 50 years ago was owned by Mr Boyer and the street is named after him.  There are gravestone of the Boyer family in the churchyard near the vestry.
Burden Lane
Burton Close
Colston Lane - leads to Colston Bassett
Dickman's Lane - named after ?
Gas Walk - 
Green Lane - because it is green and grassy
Langar Lane - leads north to Langar
Main Street - 
Nether Street - originally meaning the lower street
Pinfold Lane - every village had a pinfold a hundred years ago where stray cattle were put to be collected by their owners
Pinfold Place
Red Causeway - named after the red material making it up.
School Lane - where the school is
Stathern Lane - leads to Stathern 
Wallnut Paddock
Waltham Lane -
Watsons Lane - named after the famous Watson family of Harby cheesemakers. 
The Wongs -

BOOKS ABOUT HARBY

Anderson, John, 1976, Leicestershire Canals, bygones in camera. Privately printed.

Bourne, Jill, 1977, Place names of Leicestershire and Rutland. Leicestershire Libraries and Information Service. 

Burton, William, 1622 The description of Leicestershire. Page 127 Harby - tells who owns the land, describes the church, says that  in old deeds it is written Herdeby.

Chaworth Musters, 1890 A Cavalier Stronghold, a romance of the vale of Belvoir. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamaialton, Kent & CO, London; James Bell, Nottingham.  

Cobbet, William 1832 A geographical dictionary of England and Wales. 

Cox, Barrie  2002 The Place-names of Leicestershire, part two, Framland Hundred, Nottingham :  English Place-name Society.

Dewey, Laurie, 1968, Northeast Corner, Belvoir High School, in Melton library 942.546. Domesday Herdebi, 122 Herdeby

Gill, Josiah, 1909. The History of Wesleyan Methodism in Melton Mowbray and the Vicinity, 1769-1909. John Wartnaby Warner, Melton Mowbray.

Goodwin, Barry and Raymonde Glynne Owen, 1994, 207 squadron RAF Langar, 1942 - 1943.   

Hartley, Robert F 1987, The Mediaeval Earthworks of North-east Leicestershire. Archaeological Reports Series, Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service. 

Haycock, David Boyd  and Patrick Wallis (eds), 2005 Quackery and Commerce in Seventeenth-Century London: The Proprietary Medicine Business of Anthony Daffy, Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London.

Hewlett H B 1935, The Quarries.

Hickman, Trevor 1992, Around Melton Mowbray in old photographs, Alan Sutton. 

Hickman, Trevor 1994 The Vale of Belvoir in old photographs, Alan Sutton. 

Honeybone, Michael, 1987, The Vale of Belvoir. Barraccuda Books. 

King,  W 1806 ,Tract of country surrounding Belvoir Castle.  

Lawton, Pam and Marilyn Garner, 2000, Minutes in Time, the Story of Harby Women's Institute.

Liddle, Peter, 1982, Leicestershire Archaeology, the present state of knowledge. Volume 1, To the end of the Roman Period, Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service Archaeological Report no. 4.

Liddle, Peter, 1982, Leicestershire Archaeology, the present state of knowledge. Volume 2, Anglo-Saxon and Mediaeval Periods, Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service Archaeological Report no. 5.

Nichols, John, 1815, reprinted 19 ? History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire. Harby is mentioned in part ii pages 209-213, and 422, part iii page 534.

Palmer, Marilyn ed., 1983, Leicestershire Archaeology, the present state of knowledge. Volume 3 Industrial Archaeology, Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service Archaeological Report no. 6.

Pitt W 1809, A general view of the agriculture of the county of Leicestershire.

Prior John 1779, Map of Leicestershire.

Throsby 1798, Leicestershire views and excursions.

Unigate Foods, Stilton from Harby.

White, William 1863, History, gazetteer and directory of the counties of Leicester and Rutland. Page 353 Harby - inhabitants 655.

To find out more.

It is easy to find out more yourself.  

Leicestershire County Council provides us with a Museums, Arts and Records Service, www.leics.gov.uk. 

The Museums and Archaeological Sites and Monuments Record can be contacted at County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8TB, telephone 0116 232 3232, museums@leics.gov.uk.

The Leicestershire Record Office is at Long Street, Wigston Magna, Leicester LE18 2AH, telephone 0116 257 1080, email - recordoffice@leics.gov.uk. The special treasure there is a map of the village and all the fields around it made at the time of  the enclosures in 1793. With it are the written descriptions of who owns which land.  Click on the little picture to see more. There is also a copy of  large scale map of our village and all its fields even earlier, in 1790.

The enclosure map of Harby, reproduced from Hartley, Robert F 1987, The Mediaeval Earthworks of North-east Leicestershire.  Copyright remains with Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Records Service.

There are also other maps, the records of the Parish church and the Methodist church, records of Harby School going back to 1863, past copies of Harby News and Harby Journal, legal documents, and old photographs.

Remember to contact them first  to arrange a time if you are  going to visit.

There is also the Library, 0116 265 6988,  libraries@leics.gov.uk,  and the Carnegie Museum in Melton Mowbray, Thorpe End, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, LE13 1RB, telephone 01664 569946.     

Down in London is the Public Record Office at Kew. They hold the following documents on Harby :-

 and the website is  http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/ihr/nine.html.

Click on Rameses the grasshopper  to jump back to the top of the page

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Revised: April 22, 2008 .