Harby History Fact File
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about Harby, Dates and Happenings,
Harby in old photographs, Harby
Places, To find out more,
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. |
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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.
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| 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
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About 50 to 400 AD
During Roman times there was a small Roman settlement just t o
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. |
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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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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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. |
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| 1700 Gravestones
in the churchyard become more common after 1700. Click here
for the churchyard survey. |
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| 1777
John Prior
produces a map of Harby showing a windmill to the south |
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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.
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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!
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Harby and the Vale of Belvoir about 1800 |
Harby village about 1800 |
Harby Church about 1800 |
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Click on the picture for a larger version |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 :-
| C 143/16/5 |
The abbot and convent of Fécamp
to grant rent in Navenby to the dean and chapter of Lincoln,
retaining land. (A letter is annexed concerning a chaplain to be
found by the rector of the church of Harby in Leicestershire.)
Lincoln. |
19 EDWARD I. |
| IR 18/4487 |
LEICESTERSHIRE: Harby, parish |
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| RG 103296 |
Leicestershire: Harby, census |
1871 |
| OS 26/5523 |
Leicestershire: Harby |
1882 |
| OS 26/5522 |
Leicestershire: Harby |
1882 |
| OS 26/8398 |
Leicestershire: Harby |
1881 |
| OS 27/2932 |
Leicestershire: Harby |
1883 |
| OS 29/160 |
Harby, Leicestershire |
1883 |
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
Copyright
© 2000 Harby Limited, All rights reserved.
Revised:
April 22, 2008
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