Place:Eye Kettleby, Leicestershire, England

Eye Kettleby was a parish on the southwest edge of Melton Mowbray and part of Melton Mowbray Rural District in Leicestershire from 1894. At some time it was united with the parish of Sysonby, located directly to the north. In 1936, when Melton and Belvoir Rural District was reorganized, Sysonby and Eye Kettleby were absorbed into the urban district of Melton Mowbray.

Eye Kettleby has been omitted from all normally consulted sources, but shows up on the Ordnance Survey Map of Leicestershire of 1917 and in combination with Sysonby in A Vision of Britain through Time and Wikipedia. It can only be assumed that Eye Kettleby was part of Framland Hundred because all the surrounding parishes were part of that hundred.

Co-ordinates have been obtained from Google Earth which indicates that Eye Kettleby is still quite rural although Sysonby has been so much absorbed into Melton Mowbray that its existence is only shown through street names.

Local Administration

The parish was part of Melton Mowbray Rural District from 1894 until 1935 when the rural district was abolished and replaced by the Melton and Belvoir Rural District which covered a much larger area. A year after the introduction of the new rural district its parishes were reorganized and reduced in number from 68 to 25.

In 1974 a new nationwide organization of local government was introduced in which rural and urban districts were replaced by "non-metropolitan" districts. In the northeast of Leicestershire this meant little save for the fact that the principal town of Melton Mowbray, formerly a separate urban district, was now governed by the same body (Melton District or Borough) as the rural area that surrounded it.

Research Tips

• The map on the place-page for Melton Mowbray Rural District illustrates the location of the various parishes and the geographical and administrative changes that occurred in 1936.
• From this Findmypast page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• From this Ancestry page you can browse the Leicestershire parishes which have parish register transcripts online.
• For both of the above sites, a subscription is charged. Transcriptions of these records may also be available free of charge on the FamilySearch website.
• A further collection of online source references will be found on the county page for Leicestershire.