Chronological overview

Four thousand years ago, a small group of men sat on the ground and knapped themselves some flint. They fixed the completed arrowheads onto shafts of wood with thongs of skin and began to hunt for their next meal. They found the tracks of a deer and followed their quarry into the woodland on Castle Hill. One of the hunters stalked close to the grazing animal, took aim…. and missed! Four millennia later, the arrowhead was found by a field walker, visible proof that people have been around Thurcaston land since early times.

2000 BC	Both late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age flints have been found on Castle Hill
800-100 BC	Late Bronze Age Pottery found on Castle Hill
43 AD +	Roman pottery found on Castle Hill, also slag, possibly from a kiln, and traces of iron working.
5th Century	The Anglo-Saxons fill the void left by the departing Romans. Thurcaston falls within the Middle Anglian area
7th Century	This part of the Mercian kingdom is becoming Christian and Thurcaston’s first church – probably a wooden one – is likely to have been built.
10th Century	The Danes arrive and establish a settlement. Thorketil is a Danish name, combining with “tun”, an Anglo-Saxon word for settlement.

1066 and all that

Hugh de Grandmesnil had extensive estates in Normandy and (significantly for Thurcaston) he re-founded and endowed the abbey of Saint-Évroul. He fought with William at Hastings and his reward was the office of Castellan of Leicester and a considerable number of lands in various parts of England, becoming the largest landowner in the county. He is listed as owning one house in Thurcaston. The village is recorded in the Doomsday book as ‘ Turchitelestone’ and its mill is mentioned (more of the mill anon).

By the time Hugh died in England in 1098, Thurcaston possessed a church built in Charnwood stone (only the south doorway still exists) and from then until 1374, it was the Abbey and Convent of Evreaux (the modern name of the French province) that had the right to appoint the Rector of Thurcaston, and no doubt to enjoy some of the income of the parish. There will be more about the Rectors and Patrons in the section on the Church.

[During his last illness, Hugh, then a widower, was received by the Prior as a monk of the Abbey of Evroul. His corpse “packed in salt and sewn tightly into an ox-hide shroud” was taken back to France for burial in the Abbey!]

13th Century	Thurcaston, Wanlip, Bradgate, Cropston and Newtown Linford answer collectively as one village. Mediaeval pottery found on Castle Hill. The tower, the nave and the chancel of the church were (re)built.
14th Century	The Black death decimated the population. This is probably when houses on the north side of Brooky Lane were abandoned.
15th Century	The roof of the church’s nave was raised to its present height and a belfry was added to the tower. The ‘Perpendicular’ windows were inserted. The font is of this period. There is a canopied brass of John de Mersden, Rector of Thurcaston and Canon of Windsor, who died in 1425. The central part of ‘Latimer’s House’ was built.
16th Century	The tenor bell was cast in 1525 and other bells were added, but the church suffered the stripping of some of its other adornments under Henry VIII’s new regime. The original Manor House was built by Nicholas Grosvenor in the reign of Eliza- beth I.
17th Century	Emmanuel College, Cambridge, with its Puritan approach, becomes the Patron of the Church, appointing distinguished Rectors from the College
18th Century	The Rector Richard Hill founded and endowed the School
19th Century	The cottage on Mill Road was bought to become Thurcaston Methodist Chapel. Anstey church no longer served from Thurcaston and becomes a parish church in its own right. The present Manor House built. The present ‘Old School’ built. The Railway comes to Rothley
20th Century	Village Hall built as Memorial to the men of the Parish who died in the First World War. The village expands but being given conservation status, its perimeter is limited.
21st Century	Thurcaston church no longer has its own Rector, but is served from Anstey.

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Chronological overview

1066 and all that

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