The following Village Story which illustrates the history of our village over a thousand year period, was produced by Joan Stevenson who had such a wonderful knowledge and understanding of the Village and of Leicestershire. It has since been adapted by adding other information as village members recount their stories to the present Site Administrator.

The name of the village describes the 'new settlement by the ford where the lime trees grow'. It did not exist at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, but was colonised from Groby, probably during the 13th century. For 500 years, until 1925, it was part of the Bradgate Estate owned by the Grey family. After that date ribbon development took place along the roads to Anstey, Groby and Markfield but large scale building has been resisted. The parish is very large (4388 acres) and includes outlying areas of mainly 20th century settlement as well as the 860 acre Bradgate Park and part of Swithland Woods.

A TIME LINE FOR NEWTOWN LINFORD AND BRADGATE

1241 First documented reference to Bradgate Park. The Earl of Winchester is given the rights to take deer with nine bows and six hounds.

1280 Newtown Linford mentioned in an Itinerary. It is included collectively as one village with Rothley,Swithland,Anstey,Bradgate and Cropston.

1293 First mention of rate-paying tenants in Newtown Linford

1349 Black Death reaches Leicestershire. No further colonisation into Charnwood Forest.

1377 Poll Tax: 62 liable in Newtown; 41 in Bradgate (but only 29 pay).

c1400 Earliest parts of Newtown church

1436/7 Dendrochronology dating for felling of earliest timbers used in construction of Nos 11
and 13 Main Street (built as one house).

1445 The Manor of Groby, including Newtown Linford and Bradgate Park, pass by marriage from the Ferrers to the Grey Family.

1457 Sir John Grey marries Elizabeth Woodville.

1460 Sir John Grey killed at 2nd Battle of St Albans (Wars of the Roses), leaving two young sons.

1461 Edward IV (Yorkist) is proclaimed king. The Greys (Lancastrians) lose their estates.

1464 Edward IV secretly marries Elizabeth Woodville.

1475 Thomas Grey (son of Sir John and Elizabeth Woodville) becomes Marquis of Dorset.

1483 Thomas Grey flees to continent.

1485 Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III killed. Henry Tudor crowned Henry VII.
Thomas Grey returns to England.

c1500 Thomas Grey enlarges Bradgate Park and starts building of modern brick mansion.
The dispersed hamlet of Bradgate (mainly in area of present reservoir) is cleared and residents moved.

1501 Thomas Grey dies, being succeeded by his son, also Thomas, 2nd Marquis of Dorset. He completes the building of the house and his household are the first people to live in the mansion.

1508 Carbon dating (+ or - 20 years) for the felling of timbers used in the crucks of Vine Cottage, 9 Main Street.

1520 Thomas Grey appears before Chancery to answer for his father's depopulation of Bradgate village. Some of the tenants are rehoused at the extremity of Newtown parish, at Field Head.

1530 Thomas Grey dies, succeeded by his son Henry, who is married to Frances, daughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary. They have 3 daughters, Jane, Katherine and Mary.

1537 Lady Jane Grey born.
First known minister of Newtown church: Mr Cook.

1539 Dissolution of Ulverscroft Priory. The oldest of the 6 bells in the church tower,inscribed Tomaset, is believed to have been brought from the Priory.

1547 Death of Henry VIII, succeeded by frail 10 year old son, Edward VI.

1551 Henry Grey, 3rd Marquis of Dorset, is created Duke of Suffolk.
Lady Jane Grey is married to Lord Guildford Dudley.

1553 Edward VI dies of consumption; Lady Jane Grey is Queen for 9 days before being supplanted by Mary Tudor. Jane is confined to the Tower of London. The Grey estates, including Bradgate, are confiscated. Until at least 1575 rents are paid to Crown agents, some of whom live locally.

1554 Lady Jane Grey and her father are beheaded. Her mother marries Adrian Stokes and they live at Beaumanor.

1558 Death of Mary Tudor; accession of Elizabeth I

1564 47 families are living in Newtown Linford; 27 on Bradgate Park.

1575 Groby Manor, including Bradgate Park, returned to the Greys.

c1580 Glazed windows begin to appear in Leicestershire.

1603 Queen Elizabeth dies, succeeded by James I
Sir Henry Grey of Pirgo (Essex) is made Baron Grey of Groby and moves to Bradgate House.

1608 First church registers kept at Newtown.

1614 Henry Grey dies, succeeded by grandson Henry, who in 1628 becomes 1st Earl of Stamford.

1633 West gallery erected in church (removed in 1894)

1642-9 Civil War. Lord Stamford and son Thomas are active for Parliament.

1670 Hearth Tax paid by 48 households in Newtown; 1 at Bradgate.

1683 Date on oldest gravestone in churchyard. It bears the inscription HIC JACET JOHN
BONI & HIS 5 WIFS.
After an attempt on the life of Charles II Bradgate House is searched for arms.

1685 Silver chalice presented to church by widows Mary Milcome and Anne Ranworth. Still used on occasion, but no longer kept in the church.

1696 Visit of William III to Bradgate.

1706 Slate sundial erected on south wall of church tower.

1716 Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford, dies without direct heir. A cousin, Henry Grey of Enville, Staffordshire, becomes 3rd Earl, but does not live at Bradgate.

1736 Harry Grey, heir of 3rd Earl, marries Lady Mary Booth of Dunham Massey, Cheshire
Rents and profits on Bradgate estate = 1968.18.2.

1737 George Harry Grey, future 5th Earl of Stamford, baptised at Newtown Linford church.His parents appear to have been living at Bradgate House at this time.

1739 Mary Grey, brother of George Harry, baptised at Newtown church. On the death of the 3rd Earl of Stamford, Harry Grey inherits title and Enville.

1740 Bradgate House is boarded up and never lived in again. It soon falls into disrepair. A flock of sheep is kept within the 22 acre enclosure around the house and gardens.

1762 Rents and profits of Lord Stamford's Leicestershire estates = �3743.8.1.

1781 A trout is caught in the River Lyn weighing 9.5 lbs and measuring 3 feet 1 inch long.

1784 The windmill on John Hill stops working and is removed. A windmill is erected on Lent Hill, Newtown Linford. Old John Tower is built by Sketchley of Anstey.

1786 Celebration bonfire on 'Old John' for coming of age of George Harry, future 6th Earl of Stamford.

1790s Commonest names for babies baptised in Newtown Linford are Sarah and William.

1800 About 60 houses in the village.

c1800 Windmill on Lent Hill stops working. Ulverscroft Water Mill takes over grinding Newtown grain.

1801 First official population census. Newtown Linford: 377. Population of England and Wales is 9 million.

1816 The Newtown Linford Sick Club has its HQ at 'Mr Kinton's, the sign of the Bradgate Arms'.

1818 Lenthill Farm, also known as the Buck's Head Inn, is rebuilt by Benjamin Rudkin.

1822 Sunday School built for 6th Earl of Stamford. Also used as day school, accommodating 100 pupils.

1829 Charnwood Forest Enclosure Award.

1831 Newtown is described by Rev J Curtis as having 1600 acres, 549 inhabitants and 74 houses.
'The inhabitants of Leicester are permitted to enjoy Bradgate Park and relax there by favour of its noble owner. Old John Tower is furnished with tables and chairs and the key is never refused to persons of respectability.'

1833 After years of neglect, 6th Earl of Stamford begins a programme of repairing and building houses at Newtown.

1834 New Poor Law. Instead of obtaining Parish Relief, indigent Newtown villagers will henceforth be accommodated in the Union Workhouse at Mountsorrel.

1841 Population of Newtown is 495.

1851 Ecclesiastical census on Sunday Marsh 30 reports an afternoon congregation of 136, with 110 children in the Sunday School.

1856 7th Earl of Stamford builds new house near Field Head, called Bradgate House.

1860 Church porch added along with other restoration work.

1870 The death of Rev Robert Martin, Vicar of Ratby and Groby and Minister of the Donative Church of Newtown Linford and Perpetual Curate of Breedon on the Hill brings to an end the Ecclesiastical Peculiar of Groby. Newtown Linford becomes part of the Diocese of Peterborough.

1880 School attendance made compulsory. Parents pay 1d a week until 1891.

1892 Chancel and north Aisle added to the Church at a cost of £ 650.00 and consecrated on the 6th September 1894 by the Bishop.

1893 The pulpit, of carved Caen stone, is given to the church.

1894 The chancel is enlarged and the north transept extended to form a north aisle.

1898 A branch line linking Newtown and Thurcaston to the Great Central Railway is projected. Comes to nothing.

1900 Average attendance at village school is 50, with 2 teachers.

1901 Population 361

1902 58 Newtown men are on the payroll of Groby Granite.

1905 Death of Lady Stamford at Bradgate House. The estate passes to the family of her late husband's sister. The house is rented by the brewer Mr T W Everard.

1907 Present school built.

1906 a new tubular pneumatic organ was installed in the Church and dedicated on Friday the 9th February. The cost of the organ was £297. 10s. It's dedication was performed by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Leicester. The Vicar of the Parish at the time was the Rev. L. Bradyll Johnson.

1911 Population 419

1914 Gas is brought to the village.
Outbreak of First World War. All the village horses, except the very old and lame,are requisitioned for the army.

1915 Vestry and organ recess added to church and organ rebuilt.

1916 Present altar put in church.
Conscription

1919 Cricket Club formed on present site.
First car in village (Model T Ford) bought by pub landlord, Harry Beck.

1921 Population 395
Church lychgate added.
53 children on school roll. (3 teachers, reduced the next year to 2)
Sale of outlying properties of estate, including Ulverscroft Priory.

1925 Sale of Bradgate Estate (excepting Bradgate Park) November 17-19, at the Bell Hotel, Leicester. Some villagers are able to buy their own land and houses; some have their homes sold over their heads. Sale raises £226,110 for Mrs Grey. The Bradgate Hotel (the only property containing a bathroom) is sold to Everards for £6,400.
Newtown Linford Women's Institute formed.

1926 Newtown Linford becomes part of new Diocese of Leicester.

1927 Measles epidemic. School closed by Medical Officer.
Foot and Mouth Disease at local farm.
Johnscliffe Restaurant built.

1928 Sale of Bradgate Park to Charles Bennion for nearly £16,000. He presents it to the
people of Leicester and Leicestershire for their quiet enjoyment for all time.

Late 1920s First motor bus service, Warners of Markfield, takes people to work in Anstey.

1930 Bradgate Hall built by Lindsay Everard to replace wooden restaurant used for village
events.

1931 Population 621

1933 Water laid on to school.

1935 Village school no longer takes children till 14. They now transfer at 11 to South
Charnwood, except for handful who 'pass the scholarship' and attend Secondary
(Grammar) Schools in Leicester.

1936 Electricity brought to village. As there were never any gas street lights, this brings
the first outside illumination.

1939 Outbreak of 2nd World War. Conscription. Evacuees arrive in village, mainly from Sheffield and London. Much of Bradgate Park is closed to the public, with over 100 soldiers living there under canvas and Commandos camped in the Ruins enclosure.
The Home Guard uses Old John as its guard post. The military are all over the village.
Newtown is associated with highly secret work at Beaumanor and Garat's Hay. An axe is kept at the Village Hall so that equipment can be smashed in the event of German occupation. Officers are billetted in local houses; other ranks in Nissen huts in Main Street. There is a First Aid Post at the Sunday School and a searchlight on Markfield Lane. The British Legion club is used as a workshop for aircraft parts, staffed by local women.

1941 Bombs fall near Cropston Reservoir and in Whitcroft Lane.
There are at least 6 small tea rooms in the village, as well as other cottages selling jugs of tea to summer visitors.

1944 School kitchen added and hot meals served daily to 35 children.

1945 End of war.

1947 Planning permission for new buildings introduced.

1949 Proposal to incorporate Newtown into City of Leicester failed to gain support.

1951 Population 901

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. A programme of festivities, financed partly by a 2d rate, includes a tea party and souvenir mugs for the children, while the old folk are given a lunch and a coach trip to see the Coronation decorations in Leicester and Loughborough. There is a competition for the best decorated house, and on the Saturday a Fancy Dress Parade, with tableaux on lorries, followed by a dance at the Village Hall and a firework display on the Cricket Field.
Church clock installed at cost of �550, with proceeds of

1951 and 1952 productions of
Jack Ayling's Pageant of Bradgate.

1957 The Alphabet Stone is moved into the Church.
A Young Wives Fellowship (later the Newtown Fellowship) is started.

1959 Last burial in the churchyard, on a snowy day in January: Miss Sally Hardy, aged 90.
The new cricket pavillion is opened.
Plans are afoot to route the M1 motorway close to the village. Bob Bown rallies
opposition and 33,000 people sign petition against it.

1960 Boundary changes. Bradgate Park, Chitterman Hills and Johns Lee Wood are added
to the Parish. The road from Roecliffe to Swithland Triangle moves to Swithland, and
on Bradgate Road the land between the Wide Piece and Twenty Row is ceded to Anstey.

1961 Population 850
Death, aged 84, of Mr Edward Haslegrave, Agent of the 9,000 acre Bradgate Estate
from 1913 till 1925 Sale, remaining Ranger of Bradgate Park till shortly befoe his
death. Chairman of the Parish Council for many years.
Public Inquiry at the Bradgate Hall regarding proposed development by Jelson Ltd of
land belonging to Field View Farm (opposite the hall). Planning permission for large
scale building was refused.
Planning permission for demolition of Workhouse Row and replacement by a modern
house is refused and a Preservation Order made.

1963 Barn conversion at Village Farm (now corner of Grey Crescent).
November 30: Post Office hold-up foiled by Postmistress Kitty Brown.

1964 Parish Council endorses County Council plan to renovate Workhouse Row. Owner
starts to pull it down. Parish Council considers plan to retain site as Open Space next
to churchyard, but decides against it.
Permission to build 200 houses on Markfield Lane is refused.
Groby Bypass opened.

1965 Field View farmhouse, cottage and outbuildings, are redesigned as 4 modern homes.
Workhouse Row is demolished.

1966 St John's Ambulance hut in Bradgate Car Park is opened.

1971 Bradgate Park Trustees consider, but turn down, the possibility of compulsory car
parking charges, suggesting voluntary contributions of 10p.
Car access to Park (previously open to all on two days a week) is limited to disabled.

1972 Bradgate Hall leased from Everards. Village Hall Committee formed.
Lydia Knott is appointed Clerk to the Parish Council in succession to Connie Stopper.

1973 Eric and Wilf Buthaway give up the paper round started by their father 49 years ago.
Newsagency taken over by Dennis Scupham at the Post Office.

1974 Death of Marion Richardson of Park Cottages, which she had rented from the
Bradgate Trust. The Trust plans to use them as Information Centre.

1976 'Marion's Cottage' opened.
The Pageant of Bradgate is performed by villagers in the Bradgate Park ruins.
The hot weather and drought results in closure of most of the Park, except for
areas adjacent to the main drive, because of fire danger.

1978 Estimated population 1,011

1979 Newtown Linford, Ulverscroft, Anstey, Cropston and Thurcaston twinned with
Plateau Est de Rouen.

1981 Monthly Saturday afternoon Village Walk initiated.
Old Charlie, a horse belonging to Bradgate Woods, and a landmark in his own right,
dies, aged 46.

1982 Newtown Linford is twinned with Bradgate, Iowa.

1988 Neighbourhood Watch scheme set up, with Arthur Gibson as organiser.
For the first time the church is locked when unattended, with the key available at the
Post Office.

1998 New ecclesiastical parish of Ratby cum Groby with Newtown Linford is set up.

1999 The WI produce their first Village Guide, containing useful information, and deliver it
to each house.

1999/2000 The Millennium is celebrated by the making of a Parish Map, created by villagers,
which is installed in the Church, with poster-sized versions for each household, and by
a commemorative stone and seat on Groby Lane. On Millennium night there is a
Service of Preparation in the Church, followed by two alternative (free) parties: one in
the Village Hall with a Swing Band, and the other in the Bradgate Hotel with a disco.
At midnight there are fireworks in the pub Car Park. Later in the year a Sunday lunch
and entertainment is provided for some of the oldest residents.

2001 February 26 - July 27, Bradgate Park closed due to Foot and Mouth Disease
precautions

MAIN SOURCES

Ramsay, D A, BRADGATE AND ITS VILLAGES,

Book 1 A Time Line-Old John, Volcano Publishing, 1996

Book 3, Was there a village called Bradgate? Volcano Publishing 1998

Stevenson, Joan MEMORIES OF NEWTOWN LINFORD AND BRADGATE HOUSE,
Kairos Press 1994

Stevenson, Joan NEWTOWN LINFORD, THE OLD BUILDINGS AND THEIR
OCCUPANTS, Kairos Press 1998

Stevenson and Squires BRADGATE PARK, CHILDHOOD HOME OF LADY JANE
GREY, Kairos Press, 2nd ed. 1999

Village Scrapbooks compiled by the WI from 1953 to present day - this collection is held by Janet Neaverson who would be happy to show you by prior appointment

• if you would like to purchase any of Joan's books and many more have a look at her son Robin's site www.kairos-press.co.uk