Stapleford

 Extract from Kelly's Directory of Nottinghamshire, Leicester & Rutland and Derbyshire, 1881

STAPLEFORD, is a parish, in the Northern division of the county, Framland hundred, Melton Mowbray union and county court district, rural deanery of Framland second portion, archdeaconry of Leicester and diocese of Peterborough, near Saxby station, 117 miles from London by rail and 4 miles east-by-south from Melton Mowbray, situated on the borders of Rutland : the river Eye passes through the parish. The church of St. Mary Magdalene stands in a beautiful park near the Hall it is in Early English style, and consists of chancel, nave, and two small transepts and square tower, surmounted by pinnacles and containing 6 bells, the dates of which are 1611, 1617, 1757, 1615, 1785, one recast 1754 : it was erected in 1783, and contains some fine monuments of the Sherard family ; one in the north transept, erected in 1733, represents the first Earl of Harborough in a reclining position, the Countess sitting near, having their infant son on her knee, and is the work of Rysbrach : in the south transept is a monument to Sir William Sherard, Lord Sherard, Baron of Leitrim, bearing the date of 1640 ; it shows full length figures of Lord and Lady Sherard, with them their seven sons and four daughters : there are also several busts and slabs to various members of the Sherard family which date from 1624 : in the nave is a very fine incised brass with engraved figures of Francis Sherard esq. and his wife, below which are their seven daughters ; it bears the date 1490. The register dates from the year 1579. The living is a discharged vicarage, annexed to the rectory of Saxby, joint yearly value £168, in the gift of the Rev. B. Sherard Kennedy and held by the Rev. Peter Freeland Gorst M.A. of St. John's college, Cambridge. In 1732, Bennet, first Earl of Harborough, charged his estate with the yearly payment of £48, to be divided among six poor men from the parishes of Gunby, Teigh, Saxby, Stainby, Stapleford, and Wissendine ; and he likewise left £100 for the erection of a Bede house : in 1791, Robert Earl of Harborough augmented the endowment of the hospital with £100 a year, and increased the number of almsmen to eight, each receiving £4 12s. 6d. a quarter. This was a Roman settlement. Stapleford Park, the seat of the Rev. Bennet Sherard Kennedy, lord of the manor, and sole landowner, is a fine stone building, standing in a deer park of 919 acres. The soil is principally a blue clay. The area is 2,226 acres ; rateable value, £3,304 ; in 1881 the population was 114.
Parish Clerk, John Sherwin.
WALL LETTER BOX, cleared at 5.15. Letters through Melton Mowbray, which is the nearest money order office.
Here is a small school for this parish & Saxby. Mrs. Rodeley, mistress.

Extract from White's Gazetteer and Directory of Leicester & Rutland, 1877

STAPLEFORD parish, in Melton Mowbray Union and County Court District, and Framland Hundred, comprises 3960 acres of land, and in 1871 contained 114 persons, living in 28 houses. Its village is on the south side of the river Eye and the Oakham Canal, and 4 miles E. of Melton Mowbray. The soil is chiefly a fertile blue clay, with some beds of gravel. The Countess of Harborough, widow of the last Earl of Harborough, is owner of the soil and lady of the manor, and resides at Stapleford Hall, a fine ancient mansion in a beautiful well-wooded park of 820 acres, mostly in this and partly in two adjoining parishes. The hall stands in the centre of the park, and consists of three distinct parts, erected at different periods. The most ancient was raised by Thomas Sherard, Esq., in 1500, as appears by a date on the eastern front. Another inscription states, that ‘William Lord Sherard, Baron of Letrym, repaired this building AN. DO. 1633.’ This part of the house displays a curious specimen of the English domestic architecture of the age. It has square-headed windows, with mullions, and is ornamented with fifteen statues in niches, besides several coats of arms and pieces of sculpture, in basso relieve. The statues are intended to represent different persons, ancestors or founders of the family ; and six of them are inscribed with the following names :- Schirard, Lord of Chelterton ; King William the Conqueror ; Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester ; Bertram, Lord Verdon ; Walter de Lacy, Baron of Trim, and Earl of Ulster ; and James de Brabanzon, the great warrior. The parish adjoins Rutlandshire on the south, and is skirted on three sides by the small river Eye, which flows through the park, and forms a large sheet of ornamental water. The manor of Stapleford was held by Henry de Ferrers, who had here, in 1086, 14 carucates, with 5 ploughs, 4 bondmen, 23 villans, 4 bordars, and 23 socmen, with 13 ploughs, 2 mills, and 130 acres of meadow. In 1325 Roger Beler held it, and in 1402 it passed in marriage with Agnes Hauberk to Robert Sherard, Esq., the great ancestor of the Earls of Harborough. Benet Sherard, third Baron Sherard in Ireland, was created Baron Harborough in 1714 ; Viscount Sherard of Stapleford, in 1718 ; and Earl of Harborough, in the county of Leicester, in 1719. He died in 1732, when the viscountcy became extinct, but the baronies and earldom passed to his cousin and heir, Philip Sherard. The Rt. Hon. Robert Sherard succeeded his father as the sixth Earl of Harborough, &c., in 1807, and was born in 1797. He died in 1859 without issue, when the earldom became extinct, but the barony descended to Philip Castel Sherard of Glatton, Huntingdonshire, the present Baron Sherard, as representative of the third son of the first baron. The Church (Saint Mary) stands in the park, at a short distance from the hall, and has a square tower, containing six bells, and a clock, with chimes, which used to play four times a day. It was rebuilt in 1783 by the fourth Earl of Harborough, and contains a vault and several fine monuments of the family. Among them is one by Rysbrack, in memory of the first Earl of Harborough, whose effigy is represented in Roman costume, with one arm reclining on a cushion, and the other directed towards the figure of his lady, who is displayed with a naked infant sitting on her knee. An inscription records his titles, and says he was many years, and to the time of his death, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Rutland, and Lord Warden and Justice in Eyre north of the Trent. He died in 1732, aged 55. In the middle of the nave is a brass plate, on which are engraved outline figures of Geoffrey and Joan Sherard, dated 1490. he is represented in armour, his head resting on a helmet, and his feet on a greyhound, with large sword and spurs. On the same plate are figures of seven boys and seven girls, with four shields of arms. An elegant marble altar tomb bears recumbent effigies of William Lord Sherard and his lady. He died in 1640 ; and on each side of the tomb are three sons in armour, and a daughter kneeling on a cushion, with another son on a cushion in the middle. A handsome tablet has recently been erected to the memory of the late Earl. The benefice is a discharged vicarage, consolidated with the rectory of Saxby, as noticed at page 586. The tithes were commuted at the enclosure in 1772. The Countess supports a School (which is for this parish and that of Saxby) and clothes many of the children. Bennet first Earl of Harborough, who died in 1732, charged his manor of Stapleford with the yearly payment of £48, for equal division among six poor men of the age of 55 or upwards, to be elected by the lord of the said manor for the time being, from the parishes of Stapleford, Gunby, Stainby, Saxby, Whissendine, and Teigh ; and he further charged the manor with providing a blue cloth coat gown every third year for each of the six poor men, and with the support and repairs of the Bedehouse, which he directed his executors to construct, for the residence of the said poor menn, in the house which he had built as a dog kennel in Stapleford. For converting this building into six tenements he left £100. In 1791 Robert Earl of Harborough and his son, by deed poll, enrolled in Chancery, augmented the endowment of the Bedehouse with a rent-charge of £100 per annum out of the manor of Stapleford, and increased the number of almspeople to eight, each of which has £4. 12s. 8d. per quarter. The hospital is a handsome building, thatched with reeds, and was enlarged in 1836, previous to which two of the almsmen resided in another building. They are chosen by the Countess of Harborough, and have either been old servants in her family or inhabitants of some of the six parishes before mentioned. The parish feast is on the first Sunday in June.

Post viâ Melton Mowbray, which is the nearest Money Order Office.

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