Kirby Bellars

 

Extract from White's Leicester and Rutland Directory 1877

KIRBY BELLARS is a pleasant but scattered village and parish, on the south side of the navigable river Wreak, 21/2 miles W. by S. of Melton Mowbray. The parish, which is in the Framland Hundred, Melton Mowbray Union and County Court District, in 1871 contained 257 persons, living in 54 houses, on 2590 acres of land, chiefly a fertile clay, with a flat surface, and belonging to Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., the Rev. William Seddon, the Executors of P. Rippin, - Charlesworth's Executors, and Messrs. W. Inett, Henry Black, Edward Chandler, William Richards, Joseph Elsey, - Harrison, - Hervey, and T. B. Brewitt. The Rev. Wm.. Seddon is lord of the manor, which was anciently held by the Beler or Bellar family. A PRIORY for regular canons of the St. Augustine order was founded here as a chantry by Roger Beler, in 1320, for a warden and twelve chaplains, but was converted into a priory by his widow in 1359. It was valued at the Dissolution at £178 7s. l0d. per annum, and its site was granted to Lord John Grey, of Pirgo. In 1604 the estate here, formerly belonging to the Priory, was held by E. La Fountaine, from whom it passed to Sir Charles Sedley, and from him to the Burdetts. Kirby Park, now occupied by a farmer, was used as a hunting seat by the late Francis Burdett, who is said to have written here, under an ash tree, one of his Reform letters, previous to the great Manchester Meeting of August 16, 1819, popularly called the 'Peterloo Massacre.' For writing a letter he was tried at Leicester, and imprisoned three months in the King's Bench. The tree was struck lightning about the year 1840, and a young beech tree now grows upon its site. The CHURCH, dedicated originally to St. Mary, but on becoming conventual, to St. Peter, is a large and handsome fabric, with a tower containing five bells, and surmounted by a tall broach spire. At the west end of the south aisle is a handsome stained glass window, erected by Mrs. Johnson to the memory of her father, the late Rev. Edward Manners of Goadby Marwood. The north aisle is gone, and the chancel was new-roofed in 1820, and contains several neat monuments and two ancient effigies of the Beler family. Here is also a churchyard cross. The living a perpetual curacy, not in charge, and valued at £84. Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., is patron, and the Rev. William Jones, B.A., of Frisby, is the incumbent. From 1722 to 1810 the curacy was augmented with £800 'Q.A.B., which was laid out in land. The glebe now consists of 2 acres at Kirby, 4 acres at Oadby, 4 acres Sileby, and 15 acres at Uppingham. The parish feast is on the Sunday after August 15. Asforby Station, the Syston and Peterborough Railway, is near this village.
POST viâ Melton Mowbray, which is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office. There is a WALL Letter Box here cleared at 6 p.m.

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