Saxby

Extract from White's Leicester and Rutland Directory 1863

Saxby, on the main branch of the river Eye and the Oakham canal, 5 miles E. by N. of Melton Mowbray, is a pleasant village and parish, comprising 23 houses, 117 inhabitants, and 1403 acres of land, mostly in pasturage, with a stiff clayey soil, on a substratum of gravel and clay. The parish rises by a gentle acclivity from the low grounds near the river, which are sometimes flooded in wet seasons. The Countess of Harborough owns all the soil, and is lady of the manor, which for some ages after the Conquest, was held by the Ferres, and afterwards by the Earls of Lancaster, and the Chaworths, the latter of whom gave part of it to Laund Priory. About thirty years ago, a number of spearheads, bosses, buckles, beads, &c., apparently of Saxon workmanship, were found in the parish. The Church (St. Peter) was rebuilt in 1789, by the fifth Earl of Harborough, and is a handsome structure, in the Italian style, with a lofty spire and three bells. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in K.B. at £5, and now at £168 per annum, with the vicarage of Stapleford annexed to it, in the gift of the Countess of Harborough, and incumbency of the Rev. John B. Hildebrand, B.A., officiates here and at Stapleford. The Rectory House is a fire-proof stone building, occupied by the curate, and erected by the late Earl of Harborough, in lieu of one which was burnt down. Here are 40 acres of glebe. The parish feast is on the Sunday after July 11th. Saxby railway station is about half a mile S.W. of the village, but in Freeby parish.

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