A Brief History of Brascote

Hugh de Grandmesnil held Brascote at the time of Domesday, in 1086. The value of the land had risen from 5 shillings to 20 shillings in the twenty years since the Norman invasion. At that time it was known as Brocardescote. It is a hamlet within the parish of Newbold Verdon with whom its life and history has always been closely entwined.

In 1630 there was one freeholder, Ralph Geary. By 1811 when this volume of Nichols History was published, the land at Brascote was owned by Sir Edmund Craddock Hartopp and John Pares Esq.

In the 1841 census there were ten families in Brascote. Of the three farms, Thomas Moore was probably the biggest farmer employing five farm servants who lived in. Of the rest, two people were butchers and the remainder were agricultural workers.

Despite its long history, Brascote has remained a small hamlet.

Sources: White’s Trade Directory, 1846; Domesday Book, Leicestershire, Phillimore 1979; The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, John Nichols, 1971