Brief History of Bosworth

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Bronze Age and earlier archaeological remains indicate that the Bosworth area was a preferred place of settlement from prehistoric times. The urns, ashes and axe-heads of these early people, followed by the pottery, tesserae and coins from Roman villa sites, recall the two millennia of inhabitants who settled on and around this low rounded hilltop. The Saxon, Bose, lives on in local history since his settlement was recorded as ‘Bosworde’ in the Domesday Book of 1086, as were Od’s settlement of Odstone, the King’s settlement of Congerstone, and the Norse settlement of Cadeby – Kati’s village.

The Earls of Leicester were lords of the manor in the early medieval period, but in the 13th century the Beaumont family inherited the estate. However, it was the Harcourts who dominated the town as demesne tenants until the early Tudor period and in 1285 Bosworth obtained the first charter that provided for ‘A weekly market on Wednesday’. Both name and market have existed in perpetuity.

Whilst ordinary Bosworth folk pursued their lives on the land and worshipped in St Peter’s Church, the rich and famous came and went, including kings and dynasties. In 1485 the essence of medieval England was extinguished in sight of Bosworth and a new modern Tudor Age began. Towards the end of the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth, Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, became owner of the Bosworth estate and established a family dominance and link with the town that would continue for some 400 years. In the late Tudor and early Stuart period Bosworth became an important seat of learning. The Grammar School, re-founded by the Dixies, included amongst its scholars the Puritan theologian William Bradshaw, and Thomas Hooker, a founding father of American democracy.

The ghosts of many famous men linger in Bosworth marketplace. George Fox, born in nearby Fenny Drayton and founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, came to Bosworth in 1649 and noted in his diary: “The people of the town and market fell upon us and stoned us very sore and abused us”. John Grundy, who was born in Market Bosworth in late Stuart times, taught at the Grammar School and later became one of England’s first great civil engineers, draining much of the fens. Dr Samuel Johnson, the first great English lexicographer, would pass a brief but unhappy period as a schoolmaster at the Dixie Grammar School in 1733, recalling that he was uncertain “whether it was more disagreeable for him to teach or the boys to learn”.

The end of the 17th century saw the building of one of Leicestershire’s splendid stately homes, Bosworth Hall. The second baronet replaced his earlier country seat with the grand building that still exists today. The lives of the ordinary Bosworth residents underwent considerable change in the following century. Stocking frames became a feature of many homes, and the enclosing of the old medieval field systems eventually employed fewer folk in agriculture.

Life in Bosworth at the end of the 18th century was described by Joseph Moxon, Leicestershire High Constable, and Steward to the Bosworth estates, in his diary. When he died, his newspaper obituary described him as a ‘truly honest man’, an epithet which has doubtless been appropriate for many of the inhabitants of the town throughout the centuries. The buildings surrounding the marketplace, which still survive today, symbolised the prosperity of the Bosworth community at this time.

In the 19th century the coming of canal and railway links to the town helped to aid in its expansion and involvement in the wider activities of Victorian Britain. Education was revived in Market Bosworth with the rebuilding of the Grammar School and its new headmaster, Reverend Arthur Benoni Evans, supplied the text on the plaque of 1828 which still graces the entrance to the building:
‘Education is a possession which cannot be taken away from mortal man’.

A colourful selection of baronets occupied Bosworth Hall, including one who had been a captain at Trafalgar, and Lady Florence Dixie who distinguished herself as an international traveller and author. In 1883 the Dixies finally left the Hall and Tollemache Scott took over the estate, which he ‘enhanced’ considerably at the end of the 19th century.

The 20th century saw Market Bosworth as the centre of a Rural District Council, a status it lost in 1974. Throughout the period the Bosworth Show was the largest one-day event of its kind in the Midlands. New housing, particularly in the latter part of the century, contrasted with the closure of the cattle market. A new industrial estate symbolised the energy and change in the local community, along with an upsurge in conservation and the growth of tourism.

It is perhaps appropriate to end this short history with the motto of the Dixies: Quod Dixi Dixi –‘What I have said I have said’.

An extract from an article written by Hugh Beavin in ‘From An Open Wooded Hilltop’.

 

The Market Bosworth Union Workhouse

The Union Workhouse was built in 1836 on the Atherstone Road, Market Bosworth and designed to care for 200 paupers. It cost about £3000 to build and it was intended to serve the 28 parishes that were members of Market Bosworth Union. These parishes were spread over an area of 79 square miles and were divided into two districts, Market Bosworth and Ibstock, for administration purposes. . For some people, the shame and distress that they might have felt at having to move into the Workhouse would have been compounded by the distance that they may have had to travel.

Luke and Ann Wright were probably the first master and mistress of the Workhouse and certainly they were appointed before 1840.

Five years after it was built, the population of the 28 parishes within the Union was 13600 people who lived in 2780 houses. Besides these inhabited houses, there were 122 empty houses and 15 houses under erection. Based on figures provided by the parishes in the Union, in 1838 the cost of caring for the poor was reduced from an annual average of £7101 during the three years prior to setting up the Union to £5497.

Sources: Trade Directories, White 1846; Pigot, 1840

A List of Workhouse Masters

In most cases it has been the wife of the master who has been employed as matron.  Where the matron is known, she has been named.

Masters                                                                                                                           Matrons  

Luke WRIGHT, 1836/7? (certainly before 1840) – 1849                                            Mrs Ann WRIGHT

John PALMER, 1855 – 1863                                                                                              Mrs Ann PALMER

William INGRAM, 1870                                                                                                      Mrs A. INGRAM

F. A. GOWER, 1876                                                                                                              Miss Mary Ann GOWER

F.CLARK, 1881

James PARR, 1884                                                                                                               Mrs M. E. PARR

G. LEARMAN, 1888

John Artherall CRISP, 1891 – 1895                                                                                  Mrs Emily Ann CRISP

Thomas Henry POWTER, 1896 – 1900                                                                           Mrs Harriet POWTER

Albert LOCKETT, 1904 – 1925                                                                                          Mrs H. LOCKETT

Max ILLINGWORTH, 1928

Albert Vernon SMITH, 1932

E. S. JOHNSON, 1936                                                                                                         Mrs E. S. JOHNSON

A. STUBBS                                                                                                                             Mrs  Stubbs

 

The Inns of Market Bosworth

In 1822 there were five inns in Market Bosworth. However, between 1841 and 1846, the George Inn disappeared from all directories leaving just four. Between 1925 and 1928, The Wheatsheaf in the Market Place became the Central Cafe, and its former existence is now indicated by the Wheatsheaf Courtyard. This left just three public houses listed in the Directories, The Black Horse, The Dixie Arms and The Red Lion. There is also limited evidence of beer houses in Market Bosworth, beer houses with names. It appears that the old William IV was originally one of these, before being replaced by the existing imposing building on the same site in 1938.
There is no documentary evidence for these inns before 1822 which identifies them by name although they probably were in existence before that time. For lists of the landlords of these inns, see Family History.

Sources: Trade directories; Kelly, Barker, Wright, Pigot, Melville, Harrod, Drake, White.
Alehouse Recognizance Books QS36/2/10

Landlords at the Black Horse

Sarah DRAKELY 1822/3

Benjamin CLURE  182/9 – 1841

Thomas GODSON 1846 – 1875

Richard GODSON 1881 – 1891

Mrs Sophia GODSON 1895 – 1898

Joseph PALMER 1900 – 1904

Walter P. HERBERT 1908

Thomas SPENCER 1912 – 1941

Landlords at the Dixie Arms 

R. MOXON 1822/3 (Bulls Head)

Nathaniel MOXON 1828 – 1841

Bernard CAIN 1846

William TRIVETT 1854 – 1870

Samuel MOORE 1875 – 1896

Mrs Emma HOWE 1898

Ernest HARTSHORN 1900 – 1908

Mrs Elizabeth HARTSHORN 1912

Walter SHEPHERD 1916 – 1922 (proprietor)

Whilst Walter SHEPHERD was the proprietor, the Dixie Arms was managed by Mrs Honor CLARK who lived on the premises.  She was the widow of Frederick James CLARK.Whilst he was the head butler at the Hall and living at 9 Park Street, Frederick had died on 17 July 1916. Frederick and Honor had two sons aged seven and eight but her widowed father, Benjamin KIRKPATRICK, moved from Wallingford to help her until his death, at the Dixie Arms, on 24 November 1921 at the age of 79 years.  Subsequently she moved to Far Coton with her sons and later, after they had finished attending the Grammar School and undertaken engineering apprenticeships, she moved to Leicester.

No landlords were listed after 1922 and it was listed only as the Dixie Arms Hotel up to and including 1941.

Information about Honor CLARK provided by P. Clark

 

Landlords at the Red Lion

William TRIVET T 1811 – 1841

John TRIVETT 1846 – 1854

William HUNT 1861

William SMITH 1867

William TRIVETT Jun.1870

Charles HOPKINS 1875

John TRIVETT 1881 – 1908

Mrs Rose E. TRIVETT 1912

Berty G. GOODE 1916

William Henry TRIVETT 1922 – 1941

 

Landlords at the Wheatsheaf

Sarah KIMBERLIN 1822/3 – 1828/9

Thomas KIMBERLIN 1831

Mrs Catherine KIMBERLIN 1841 – 1867

John KIMBERLLIN 1870 – 1881

David PALMER 1884

Frederick ALLEN 1891 – 1898

Richard William PRESTON 1900 – 1904

Eustace E. CHURCH 1908 – 1912

William Henry HOLMES 1916

Mrs Annie Elizabeth HOLMES 1922 – 1925

There were no further listings for the Wheatsheaf which ceased being a public house around this time

 

Landlords at the George Inn

 Elizabeth BEADMAN 1822/3

Edward HITCHINS 1828/9 – 1835

Joseph BRADDER 1841

The George was not listed again after 1841.

 

The Charities

There were five charities associated with Market Bosworth.  There was the charity associated with the school which provided free education for local children and, sanctioned by the Court of Chancery in 1835, was able to send between one and four boys to university.  The boys had to have been free scholars at the school and could go to either Oxford or Cambridge with £80 per year.

The parish was able to send six poor widows to Spence’s Almshouses at Carlton near Skipton inYorkshire.  There they each had a separate apartment, an allowance of coals and £20 per year in quarterly payments.  This charity was founded by Ferrand Spence in 1628.  When there was a vacancy, the rector was notified and the chosen recipient was sent to Carlton at the expense of the parish.

The dividends of money left by Charles Wagstaffe in his will in 1784 and invested bought bread which was distributed amongst the poor.

Market Bosworth and Atherstone in Warwickshire were both entitled to equal shares in Sharpe’s Charity.  There was £20 per year to provided apprenticeships for four poor boys, presumably two from each town.

 

The Railway Station

The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway built a line through Market Bosworth in 1873. The station and the station house were built on the Down side of the track, a mile outside the town. Sadly its years as a passenger station were limited and lasted less than fifty years. There are no station masters listed after 1925 although the station was still open. In 1931, it closed to passenger traffic with the building being used for Goods offices. During the World War 2, the army used the station and goods yards as a petrol distribution depot. The goods yard closed in 1968 and, since that time, a motor engineer has used the cookhouse extension, built by the army. The last excursion to use the station was in 1962 but the Shackerstone Railway Society has used the Up platform, until the early 1990s, as their terminus.

 

Stationmasters

Thomas PALING, 1876
Ellis BRAY, 1881 – 1908
George James GRANGER, 1912
John William AIERS, 1916
James Simmonds AIERS, 1922 – 1925

 

The Station Master

The railway came to Market Bosworth in 1873 and Ellis Bray arrived just a few years later, c. 1880.  With him he brought his wife, Elizabeth Ann, and his five young children.  They moved into the station house, close to the station and just outside the town where they remained for almost thirty years.

Ellis was born in Huddersfield in Yorkshire c. 1846.  He met his wife, Elizabeth Ann, at Rothwell in Northamptonshire, and after their marriage in 1871, it was in Rothwell that Ellis and Elizabeth had their first child, William c. 1873 in the same year that the Ashby and Nuneaton joint railway built the line that took the railway to Market Bosworth.

The births of his children chart Ellis’ career to some extent.  Daughter Elizabeth Ann was born in Strines in Derbyshire just a year later in 1874 and two years later the family had moved to Hyde in Cheshire.  It was in Hyde that Laura was born in 1876 and Richard in 1877.  Emma was born c. 1879 and shortly after that Ellis was appointed to the position of station master at Market Bosworth.

The Brays settled into the station house at Market Bosworth where Edwin was born c. 1884 and, seven years later, Eleanor Nora was baptised on the 5 July 1891.  There is no baptism for Edwin.  Ellis Bray was the station master at Market Bosworth until at least 1908, the last year in which he was recorded in a trade directory.  By the time that the next directory was published in 1912, the Brays had left.  Where did they go?  Did Ellis continue to work on the railway?  When they moved to Market Bosworth, did they imagine that they would be there for so long?  Did they want to move away?  It is unlikely that that these questions will ever be answered.  What this story does illustrate is that the railway that provided cheap travel to enable its customers to move around the country with more ease and less cost than ever before, also provided opportunities for the railway staff.  Without the railway, Ellis Bray may never have left Yorkshire.

 

A brief history of framework knitting.

Report on the Condition of Framework Knitters 1845
In the early nineteenth century the demand for goods produced by framework knitters began to decline rapidly. With this decline in demand, the wages of the knitters also fell. This was accompanied by a dramatic fall in their standard of living. There was also concern that once caught in this poverty trap that the knitter could only buy food and other necessities from certain shops in the village (the Truck System). This kept the prices artificially high increasing the poverty of the workers. In 1843/44 a government enquiry was launched and its results were published in the “Report on the Condition of Framework Knitters” in 1845. Many of the interviews have been transcribed and the views of the workers leap off the pages. The interviews of the framework knitters interviewed in Saddington can be seen on these pages.

 

James Fletcher, Frame-work knitter, Wrought-hose Branch, examined

Q. How many frames have you?

A. Two

Q. Who works in them?

A. Myself and my son.

Q. Were you deputed, with other witnesses, to come and give evidence on behalf of the other frame-work knitters of Market Bosworth?

A. Yes with John Palmer, John Fletcher, Thomas Palmer and Samuel Arguyle.

Q. How many frames are there in Market Bosworth?

A. About 70.

Q. Are they all wrought frames?

A. Yes

Q. What are they generally employed on?

A. Wrought hose. Sometimes on cotton, sometimes on worsted, and sometimes lamb’s wool, according to the season.

Q. What do the work generally?

A. From 3s. to 4s. 6d.

Q. What frame are you working?

A. Mine are both 22-guages.

Q. And what are you paid for your work?

A. 3s. 9d. They out 3d. on within this last week or two.

Q. How many dozen can you do in a week?

A. From two dozen and three pair, to two dozen and a half.

Q. Is that the average of the frames?

A. It is considerably more: not one of 20 can do that.

Q. What charges do you have to pay?

A. One shilling frame-rent; and in the winter 6d. candles, 2d needles, 4d. winding, and 8d seaming.

Q. Who do you work to?

A. To Mr Jaques, of Bosworth; he charges 2d. a day for taking in.

Q. Do you receive your wages in ready money?

A. No I do not; he sells bread. We take our bread from him, and our candles.

Q. How many of the 70 frames to Mr. Jaques, do you know?

A. About 23, as near as I can guess.

Q. Do the others work to the warehouses?

A. Most of them; but some work to Mr Peat of Saddington and to Mr Law, of Stoke Golding.

Q. Are they both bagman?

A. Yes.

Q. Do they both keep shops?

A. Mr Peat does not, Mr Law doe; he keeps a publichouse, and sells bread, ale and grocery.

Q. Are the charges the same, as far as you know?

A. Yes; Mr Law’s is 1s a week for the frames; they used to be 9d. The value of the frames was much more then than now.

Q. Has the number of frames decreased or increased in Market Bosworth?

A. Diminished a great deal. They used to be more than 100; they have all got out of it that can.

Q. Are there any wide frames there?

A. Not one. There were two, but they are gone, and that is a pity but they were all gone from every place.

Q. Have any of the frame-work knitters any allotments of land?

A. A little bit this turn that belongs to Lady Byron; it is about two miles from the town, that a farmer took up; it is uncultivated   almost. Some of them are trying it, but they are doing no good. I expect it will be flung up again; it is such ground that they can do nothing with it; it is worn out and foul. I think that they are planting it with trees, else there are no allotments except bit of gardens attached to the houses. There are about 40 have gardens in that way, but it is not all frame-work knitters. They pay 4l an acre and have about 400 a piece – that is, the townspeople generally. It was a bit of waste land that nobody would have anything to do with.

Are you sure that they pay as much as that?

Yes. Thomas Palmer has got 400, and he pays 8s for it.

What do you believe to be the average earnings of the frames now, take one with the other?

I should think, with one another, in Bosworth, not above 4s to 5s.

Are there many women and young persons employed in the frames there?

Not a great deal of women; the trade has got so bad that it would not answer their end. They take care of the children.

Is there any free day-school there?

Yes there is a free-school there; when children get so that they can read the Testament they can get in; but they are about establishing an infant-school for boys. Lady Bryon has established one for girls.

Do the frame-work knitters derive much advantage from them?

No, they are forced to put their children to wind and seam and nurse, and so on, till they get to that size that they can go to something else. It is mostly used by the agricultural labourers and that sort.

Has the condition of the frame-work knitters got worse of late years?

Oh yes, considerably. In 1813 it was a pretty good business; a man could earn about 2s. 6d a day, and then till about 1815; then (1816) it began to fall off. In 1817 it was wretchedly bad; and many of us came on the parish. Then a meting was made by the farmers, and they agreed to take us out of the frames altogether, and not to let us work unless they gave us enough wages to live on. We were out then for about one month, then they made what they called the 1817 statement, and advanced us from 1s 6d to 2s 6d a dozen; which they continued till about 1825. Trade went out on a regular state until the panic took place; then we went back again on the land. In 1826, about Easter-time, we went to work again at about one-sixth less than we had at the time of the panic in 1825. Ever since then it has been wearing down, till it has got to the state it is now. There has been a little revival in the cotton trade. The Hinckley trade came forward to help us in getting an advance in the cotton branch in 1833, and they raised them to a fair price; they used to have 6s a dozen then, such as they now have 4s 6d for, with the same leads and the same narrowings. That carried on about eight years, till 1841; then there was a flatness in trade, through worsted being less than cotton; and the worsted hands flocked to cotton, and the masters dropped their hands, or they would not have had their goods made; and so the cotton statement got broken up. Then they used to make an allowance of a quarter of an once in the pound for the waste of working up the stuff; that they would have taken off now; we are obliged to work to make up our accounts, and suffer the loss of the waste. Last year my brother in Bosworth paid 18s that he ran bad, besides having oil and soap to find his to wet his stuff to work with; and then, if you cannot make it up, they say it is embezzled, and send you to prison, they will not employ you, A man that works where I do lost his frames in that way. Whether the stuff is wet or dry, you must work it up, and make the weight, and if you do not, you must abide by it; the worst stuff is worked up in the wrought hose.

 

(The Witness withdrew)

 

John Palmer of Market Bosworth, Frame-work Knitter, Wrought-hose Branch examined.

 

Q. Is there any direct trucking in your neighbourhood?

A. No direct trucking just now. The hands may have their money if they like, but if they run anything at the shop, of course they are expected to pay for it. A hosier of Leicester, who used to live at Hinckley, employs hands at Cadeby, and the plan they have to pursue is this, – they have to bring their work to Bosworth on the Friday night; the Bosworth carrier takes it to Leicester; he brings the stuff on Saturday night; he does not bring the money, but brings a bag; then on Sunday morning the Cadeby hands come to Bosworth for the bag; and, on the Monday, they have to go to Hinckley for the money.

Q. Where do they go first?

A. To a grocer’s shop, to bring the money away; they are not compiled to take things out there, but they do buy their flour there, and that flour has to be carried from Hinckley to Cadeby; so that they have to pay the carriage for their work to Leicester, and the carriage of the stuff back again, then they have to pay carriage for their flour from Hinckley to Cadeby. We have not the least chance of making any provision, so when we get old there is nothing but the workhouse.

Q. Have you noticed the condition of the people to get worse?

A. Yes, because since 1826 they have been dropping us regularly in a flat season; they drop when there comes a bit of a lull, and there is no rise; then, when there is a flat, they reduce us again. In the last four years they have reduced us in cotton business 1s 6d a dozen, and in the worsted business since 1836, they have reduced us about 2s 6d a dozen, besides taking off our allowance for waste. They used to have a law that they would take in the rubbish, which is all weighed out to us; now they will not have it all, and you must do a you can. I have got nearly 30 pounds of waste now. What is sunk in waste is in the cotton-makers hands, and they weigh paper and string all the bundle of cotton, and they grumble at taking the paper and string back again. Some say it is the spurious work that has put us down, others say it is the Corn Laws, but it is hard to tell what it is. I think that the undertakers in the trade have done us a great deal of harm. The undertakers have the frames that they hire, and then in flat times they constantly going about among the hosiers to solicit work at any price, to get their framrents. I know a case of an undertaker who went to a manufacturer for work; he said, “I do not want any more;” the man said, “But I must have some. I have seven frames; some of them I have been renting, and I must pay for them. My men have had goods, and I shall lose that if I have no work for them;” and he offered to take the work at 3d a dozen less. I know that it was the case. I believe that the manufacturers who employ us would be ashamed to send us off with the little money that the undertakers do. The undertakers do not care a bit. I have known the case where the men have been obliged to barter away the goods that they have taken, to pay the seamers and the others, and they have to pawn and do any way they can to carry on. I have taken my clothes over to Hinckley, and pawned them to get a shilling, and knew I never should have them again; we have no alternative.

Q. Have you anything else to say?

A. No

(The Witness withdrew)

 

St Peter’s Church Market Bosworth

The church at Market Bosworth is dedicated to St. Peter. It has a tower containing five bells. There is evidence to show that there was a church there in the thirteenth century since there was a rector in 1221. However there are parts of the existing church that have been dated to the thirteenth century and other parts to the fourteenth century. There is also a large hexagonal font which is believed to have been built before c.1360. The year 1737 has been carved over the porch indicating that perhaps the porch was built at that time. Certainly there are records of extensive rebuilding and refurbishment throughout the nineteenth century.

Sources: White’s Trade Directory, 1846; The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, J. Nichols; The Buildings of England,

Leicestershire and Rutland, Niklaus Pevsner (revised by Elizabeth Williamson)

 

List of Rectors at Market Bosworth

William de VERDON  1221

Ralph de BOSWORTH deacon  1223

Johannes de PASSENHAM  1264

Thomas de SANDIACRE  1275

Robert de SANCTO IVONE  1275

Bertram de VERDUN 11 March 1307/8

—- WOLLASTON resigned 1403

Henry de FERRARIIS  6 October 1403

Thomas THRYKE  4 January 1407/8

William KYNWOLMERSET 18 December 1419; died 1446

Thomas HAYWARD 18 September 1446

William INEE 26 April 1458

Robert MOINE 15 January 1482/3

William BARONS 27 January 1502/3

Richard ROLSON  7 February 1504/3

Maurice MORICE 3 August 1512

Robert BROOKE  20 May 1532

Miles JOHNSON  3 September 1557

William PELSANT B.D. 1588; died c. 1643 (P0ssibly 20th April. Updated information provided by E. H.  Bowler 7th August 2018)

John PELSANT  1634; resigned 1641; died 1661

Michael HUDSON  M.A. 6 January 1641/2

Spence LAMBERT  1645

William GERY D.D.18 June 1661–31 March 1668

Abraham SPENCE  22 May 1668- 1671

John BOYLSTON  5 July 1671

Charles CARTER 16 August 1678

John DIXIE M.A.  9 September 1685; died 6 December 1719 aged 58 years

John GOODWIN M.A. 2 February 1719; resigned 1729 9 died 22 January 1753 at Clapham, aged 70 years)

Beaumont DIXIE 2 June 1729– 1740 (died at Bath 22 February 1739/40)

John TAYLOR LL.D. 1740; died 29 February 1788

Thomas WRIGHT M.A.  1788; buried 5 December 1840 aged 84 years

Thomas BURNABY1841

Beaumont DIXIE 1842; buried 9 November aged 28 years

Nathaniel Pomfret SMALL M.A. 1847; buried 26 May 1885  aged 79 years

R. B. LOWE January 1886 for 6 months

Percy Harris BOWERS M.A. 1886; buried19 November 1922aged 66 years

Edward Law HARKNESS M.A. 1923 – 1931

Francis Reginald Chasseau PAYNE M.A., O.B.E. 1932 – 1938

Thomas Robert James AVERY M.A. 1941

 

The Market Bosworth Police

The old police station in Market Bosworth was once the new police station. Eight years after the Act that allowed for the formation of county police forces, the first police station in Market Bosworth was built on Litchfield Street. It had two cells for prisoners and an attached house for the policeman. This Police Station survives as “Warwick House” on Warwick Lane, with the old cells currently used as outbuildings. Initially the police officer for the town was a constable although that later changed to a sergeant and later still to inspector.

The first recorded police man in Market Bosworth was police constable Frederic Ball, 29 years old and married with children. Frederic had been born in Leicester.

Initially the police station was staffed by just the one man. By 1870 when there was a sergeant at the police station, there was also a constable. Details of police personnel have been recorded spasmodically in the trade directories; sometimes with the senior officer only being named and the constable remaining nameless, other times no names were given at all.

The old Police Station was superseded by a new building, erected in 1896, at the corner of Shenton Lane and the Market Place. This building is still used by the police, although the attached Magistrates’ Court with its big windows is now the art studio of the Dixie Grammar School.

Source: Trade Directories 1841 – 1941, Kelly, Wright, White, Harrod, Pigot, Slater, Mercer and Crocker and Post Office

 

List of Early Police Officers

Frederic BALL, P.C., 1849 – 1854

Edward PARKES, Sgt., 1861 – 1867 (died at work in the Police Station)

Thomas PEBERDY, 1871

David WILSON, Sgt., 1875

Thomas CRAMP, Insp., 1884

Michael BRIGGS, Insp., 1888

Thomas VERNON, Sgt., 1891 – 1900

James HALL, Insp., 1904 – 1912

William PEGG, Insp., 1916

Arthur Stanley HANCOCK, 1922 – 1925

 

A List of Masters at the Grammar School

James HOLWORTHY, 1791

John SKELTON, 1822 – 29

Rev. Arthur Benoni EVANS, 1831 – 1855

Rev. Thomas WALTERS M.A., 1861 – 1862

Rev. George John DAVIE, 1863 – 1877

Rev. Charles Isaac STEVENS, 1877 – 1882

Rev. Desmond Henry Wynn SAMPSON, 188?-1886

Rev.L H Pearson 1886 – 1894

Rev. Lewis H. PEARSON B.A., 1900 – 1912

Rev. Reginald Warlow CLARKE M.A., 1914 – 1918

J. Ford SMITH M.A., 1922 – 1943

 

A List of Masters and Mistresses at the Elementary School

Rev. C. I. STEPHENS, 1880                                                 Mary Ann WAGSTAFF, 1849

Charles SOUTHBY, 1881 – 1894                                          Miss Dorothy Ann DRACKLEY,1855

(National Girls’ School)

Robert George GRAVER, 1895  – 1925                               Miss WRIGHT (Infants), 1870

Miss Elizabeth CHAPMAN, 1876

(National Girls’ School)

Miss M. STEPHENS, 1880 – 1881

Miss M. A. POWERS, 1884

Alice M. STACEY, 1891

Adina CRANFIELD, 1895 – 1925

Source: Trade Directories

Characters and Famous People of Market Bosworth

Nigel Ward – Dixie Grammar School Pupil in 1892

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