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 Fact File

 on Harby History

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 1200 The 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.
1220  Details of the clergy at Harby start in 1220, continuing to the present. Click here.
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. Click here.
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. For the full story read the book listed below by Haycock and Wallis. 1669  The Society of Friends met in Harby according to  Archbishop Sheldon's inquiry into the growth of Nonconformity;  the Harby churchwardens provided a return which stated: "One conventicle of Quakers, about 20 in number . . . William Smith, a stranger, Eliza Hooton, a stranger, Leviston Patrick, a stranger, be their teachers. They usually meet at ye dwelling house of Chr. Levis, husbandman." 1684  Two families from the Society of Friends in Harby,  William Garrett (Garat) and his family together with Samuel Levis and his family,  emigrated  in 1684 to Pennsylvania. Click here to read the full story.
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. For a map of 1793 click here. 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

1816  The Ordnance Survey produced a 2 inches to the mile map of Leicestershire which includes Harby. The original is in the British Library  and can be seen online on

 http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/m/zoomify82354.html.

1827 The present Harby Church of England Primary School began from the initiative of the National Society for Promoting Religious Education in the whole of the country. It was founded by the Rector about 1827, the exact date is not recorded, with the land given by the Duke of Rutland. The trade directory for 1846 tells us that the school master then was William Burnham. The 1851 census records the school master as William Chandler, his wife Emma being the school mistress.

1828 The windmill is built by the Grantham canal near Colston Bridge of brick with seven storeys.

1831 A "population formula" or census of Harby is conducted by Mr Stevenson,  local Harby man. It gives a population of 488. Click here to see all the pages

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 29th. The Times reported this on page 7 of the Friday 31 May issue 1839:

MARRIAGES

On Wednesday, the 29th inst., at Harby, in the county of Leicester, by the Rev. W. Evans Hartopp, His Grace the Duke of St. Alban’s, to Elizabeth Catherine, youngest daughter of the late General Gubbins, of South Stoneham, Hants, and of Killrush in the County of Limerick. After the ceremony the happy pair left for Redbourne Hall, the seat of the Noble Duke.

Elizabeth was the cousin of the wife of Rev Hartopp who performed the ceremony. She was living with the Hartopps in the Rectory after both her parents had died when she was 19.

1843 The Parliamentary Gazetteer of  England and Wales (1840 - 1843) tells us:- "HARBY, a parish in the hundred of Framland, union of Melton Mowbray, county of Leicester; 8 miles north of Melton Mowbray, and intersected by the Nottingham and Grantham canal. Living, a rectory, formerly in the archdeaconry of Leicester and diocese of Lincoln, now in the diocese of Peterborough ; rated at £20; gross income £497. Patron in 1835, the duke of Rutland. There is a daily school here. Charities, in 1836, £13 16s. per annum. Poor rates, in 1838, £196 10s. Acres 2,800. Houses 96. A. P. £2,566. Population in 1801, 343; in 1831, 488."

1846  Click here for an account of the village from White's directory in 1846.  During the previous two years 49 of the parish had emigrated to Australia, & etc. There are three public house, the Nag's Head, White Hart and Marquis of Granby. The population is 629 souls.

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.

1851 The national census records many young girls working making lace in their homes in the village.

1853  A map was drawn up of the parish of Harby showing the land belonging to the Rector. It was removed from where it has hung for many years on the church wall in 2008 because it was decided the location might lead to the deterioration of the map due to damp. It has been deposited on loan along with other parish church material in the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland where it has  undergone conservation. The identification number there is DE 7663.

1854 Melville's directory gives an account of the village, click here.

1855 The Post Office directory gives a description of the village, click here. There are three public houses, the Nag's Head, White Hart and Marquis of Granby.

1860 The present Harby School is built at a cost of nearly £1000, raised by subscription and grants, to hold 120 children. The conveyance document says that  the land was “given by me (Duke of Rutland) as Lord of the Manor as and for a site for a school for the said parish on or about the year 1827 but of which no conveyance has ever been executed”. The document goes on to state that the new building is – “to be used as and for a school for the education of children and adults or children only of the labouring manufacturing and other poor classes in the parish of Harby”. There was a new certificated school master, Henry Major, aged 23, born in Folkestone.

1861 Drake's directory gives an account of the village, click here. There are three public houses, the Nag's Head, White Hart and Marquis of Granby. William Watchorn runs the Marquis of Grandby and the census tells us that it was "near Stathern Road".

1863  William White directory says that there were 655 inhabitants, click here. There are three public houses, the Nag's Head, White Hart and Marquis of Granby.

1868 S Furmidge writes to  his uncle   W Hardy Esq., George Town, America. Click to read the letter.

1870 Harrod's directory gives an account of the village, click here. The population of the village is about 550. There are three public houses, the Nag's Head, White Hart and Marquis of Granby.

1871 the census of 1871 gave the population of the village as 539. Click here for details. The census tells us that the Marquis of Granby was run by William Medley and it was positioned on Stathern Road. People are entered as working producing lace, click here for more details.

1875 Barker's directory gives a description of the village, click here. It appears that  the Marquis of Granby public house had closed at it is no longer mentioned here or in any later directories. The building was altered into two cottages, now a private house number 42 Stathern Lane.

1876 The church underwent extensive restoration, click here for details.

1876 The Post Office directory gives a description of the village, click here.

1877 for a description of the village by White in 1877 click here see also the website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/Ag/maps/harby.htm. 

1879  The railway opened. 

1880  The incline tramway  opened bringing ironstone from the Eastwell quarry down Harby Hill.

1880 Wright's directory gives an account of the village, click here.

1881 Kelly's directory gives an account of the village, click here. The census records a population of 591 some of whom are employed on the railway.

1884  The Ordnance Survey map of Harby shows the village over 100 years ago with the three windmills and the Vale Brewery.  Click here for the map and here for an account of mills at Harby.

1885 - 1902  Over these years Francis James King-King kept diaries of the hunting he did. These diaries have been donated to Melton Museum and they are being digitized and transcribed by the museum staff and volunteers. The pages are to be seen on

http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/leisure_tourism/museums/meltonmuseum/meltonmuseum_hunting/huntingdiaries.htm.

The Museum has kindly provided the dates in the diaries transcribed so far when Francis was hunting around Harby: -

1887 – 26th November,  3rd December, 7th April

1888 – 1st December, 19th December, 29th December, 23rd January, 9th March, 3rd April

1890 – 15th November, 6th December, 21st February

1894 –  29th December.

If you are interested in joining as a volunteer this kind of work the Museum is doing please contact the Museum on meltonmuseum@leics.gov.uk.

 1887 Wright's directory gives an account of the village, click here. The population is over 610.

1891 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here. The census records a population of 636 some working  on the ironstone mining.

1892 Wright's directory gives an account of the village, click here.

1895 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here.

1897 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. The average number of children attending school in 1899 was 118.

1899 Wright's directory gives and account of Harby, click here.

1891 The census records a population of 652

1900 Ironstone mining took place along Harby Hills at Eaton and Eastwell and to the south from 1882 to 1962. websites giving information are

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/1/Ironstone_1.htm

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/60/Ironstone.htm

http://www.nottm-melton-railway.co.uk/c17/page254.htm

http://www.meltonmowbray.steamrailways.com/Harby%20-%20Stathern.htm

http://www.meltonmowbray.steamrailways.com/Iron%20ore%20lines.htm

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. 

1906 This map of 1906 shows the extent of the parish. Click here.

1907 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.

1908 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here.

1909 Click here for some details of the Methodist chapel in 1909.

1910  Click here for an account of life on the canal around this time.

1911 The census records a population of 605.

1912 Kelly's directory gives an account of Harby, click here. Click here for recollections of Harby in 1912 by Edith Buxton.

1916 Kelly's directory gives an account of Harby, click here.

1920s The War Memorial was erected in 1920. Click here for the reminiscences of Harby in the 1920s recorded in the 1970s by Eli Coy. And here for recollections of an old shop.

1922 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here.  Memories of her schooldays were written down in 1952 by Ethel Newton, click here.

1925 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here. The Men's Instiute was opened, later called the Village Hall.

1927 The Women's Institute began. A long account is published of Stilton cheese and Harby. Click here for a reprinted version.

1928 Kelly's Directory, click here, tells us there were 9 farmers, 9 graziers and only one of the farms was over 50 acres. There were 2 cheese manufacturers, 5 tradesmen, 2 publicans, 7 retailers and a carrier who had an omnibus and sold coal. Four people in the village had a car. The population was about 625 men, women and children.

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.

A memorial plaque was put up in the Methodist chapel, now on the west wall of the building used now as the Valley Christian Fellowship. Click here for details.

1932 Kelly's directory gives and account of Harby, click here.

1936. Dot, the oldest pony in the world, which lived in Harby, died on  14 September. Click here for an account.

1936 The canal closed. Kelly's directory gives an account of Harby , click here.

1937 The coronation celebrations are a startling success. Click here to read the account.

1938 Harby windmill goes out of use.

1939-45 Two young men of Harby were killed in World War II.

1942 Langar airfield built in the Second World War. Click here for an account.

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 6th 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.

1950 The Illustrated Leicester Chronicle publishes and article on Harby, click here.

1952 The Royal Canadian Airforce came to Langar airfield.

1956  Mr Kemp is recorded talking about life in Harby, Clck on this link to hear the recording http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0056XX-0500V0.xml#. Click here for a transcript of the words.

1957 The Leicester Advertiser publishes an article on Harby. Click here

1960 Railway closed. Incline tramway  bringing ironstone from the Eastwell quarry down Harby Hill closed.

1963 The New Rectory is built. The Canadian airforce left Langar.

1964  The Guardian Journal publishes an article on Harby and cheese making, click here to read it.

1968 AV Roe left Langar airfield.

1969 The Leicester Advertiser publishes an article on Harby, click here.

1973 An article is published in the Leicester Advertiser on Harby School. Click here.

1976 An article is published in the Leicester Advertiser on the village and the possible new coal mine, click here. Click here for magazine articles on the possible coal mine and farming in the village, especially egg and cheese production.

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

1979  The talk of a coal mine at Harby continue and is included in the  account of Harby in 1979, click here. The mine was eventually put at Asfordby.

1983   Pat O'Brien, the District Nurse, retires. Click here for a newspaper account of her working life.

1984   The Nottingham Evening Post  publishes  article on Harby, click here.

1986 The original Domesday record was made in 1086. You can read the Harby entry toward the top of this page. In 1986 the BBC launched an ambitious project to record a snapshot of everyday life across the UK for future generations, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday.

Harby School second and third year pupils wrote the entries for Harby in 1986, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-472000-330000. The text is also brought together on this website, click here. The text is copyright BBC.

1999 The Melton Local Plan was produced. It included  a description of Harby click here.

2006 A Community Consultarion was carried out which produced a parish plan in 2007, click http://www.harby.co.uk/Harby%20J56336.pdf.  Click here for the introduction..

Copyright © 2000 Harby Limited, All rights reserved.
Revised: November 14, 2012 .