Place:Great Easton, Leicestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Great Easton is a village and civil parish in the Harborough District of Leicestershire, England. The parish had a population of 558 according to the 2001 UK census, increasing to 671 at the 2011 census.

The village sits in the Welland Valley in the rolling south Leicestershire countryside. It is located in the extreme southeast of the county and is very close to the borders with Northamptonshire and Rutland; it is just south of the Eyebrook Reservoir. Nearby places are Bringhurst and Drayton in Leicestershire, Caldecott in Rutland, and Rockingham and Cottingham in Northamptonshire. The nearest town is Corby in Northamptonshire.

The present civil parishes of Drayton and Great Easton were formerly part of the ancient parish of Bringhurst which possesses the mother church of St. James church in Drayton. In 1086 the manor of Easton, which included the greater part of Bringhurst parish, belonged to the Abbey of Peterborough. The only portions of Bringhurst parish not controlled by the abbey were Drayton and the lost medieval village of Prestgrave. Land in these places, which was omitted from the Domesday Survey, came under the lordship of the Bassets of Weldon (in Northamptonshire). At the time of the 1381 poll tax 133 persons were listed in Easton, 43 in Drayton, 26 in Bringhurst, an order of size that has since been maintained. In 1563 there were 70 households in Easton and 21 in Bringhurst and Drayton combined. (Source: Wikipedia on Drayton)

Research Tips

• The map on the place-page for Market Harborough Rural District illustrates the location of the various parishes.
• Victoria County History - Leicestershire - Vol 5, pp49-61 - Parish: Bringhurst. (London, 1964) British History Online. University of London.
• 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.