Place:Harston, Leicestershire, England

Watchers
NameHarston
Alt namesHarestonsource: Family History Library Catalog
Herstansource: Domesday Book (1985) p 161
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates52.867°N 0.767°W
Located inLeicestershire, England     ( - 1936)
See alsoFramland Hundred, Leicestershire, Englandhundred in which the parish was included
Belvoir Rural, Leicestershire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1936
Belvoir, Leicestershire, Englandparish into which it was absorbed in 1936
Melton District, Leicestershire, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Harston from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HARSTON, or HARESTON, a parish in the [registration] district of Grantham and county of Leicester; adjacent to Lincoln[shire], near Belvoir Castle, 6 miles WNW of Grantham station. Post town, Woolsthorpe, under Grantham. Acres: 1,009. Real property: £1,408. Population: 164. Houses: 35. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to the Duke of Rutland. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborongh. Value: £282. Patron: the Lord Chancellor. The church has an embattled tower, and is good. There is a national school."

Harston in Leicestershire, England was an ancient parish and a civil parish until 1936 when it was abolished and the area absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Belvoir. It was located in the Vale of Belvoir in the northeast corner of the county.

Local Administration

The parish was part of Belvoir 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

Maps on the place-pages for Belvoir Rural District and Melton and Belvoir Rural District illustrate the location of the various parishes and the geographical and administrative changes that occurred in 1936.