Place:Nether Broughton, Leicestershire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

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

"BROUGHTON (Nether), a parish in Melton-Mowbray [registration] district, Leicester; on the verge of the county, near the Fosse way and the Grantham canal, 6 miles NW by N of Melton-Mowbray [railway] station. It has a post office under Melton-Mowbray. Acres: 2,110. Real property: £4,296. Population: 519. Houses: 107. The property is divided among a few. Broughton Lodge is a chief residence. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value: £397. Patron: alternately the Hon. P. P. Bouverie and the Rev. W. H. Sawyer. The church has an embattled pinnacled tower, and is very good. There are a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £17."

Nether Broughton is at the western edge of Leicestershire where its border is with Nottinghamshire. Its neighbouring hamlet of Upper Broughton is in Nottinghamshire.

Much of the parish land was used for grazing and Stilton cheese was made. Sufficient iron ore was found in the neighbourhood for four blast furnaces to be built by the Holwell Iron Company. (Source:GENUKI)

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 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 this change Nether Broughton was abolished and the area was joined with the neighbouring parish of Old Dalby to become Broughton and Old Dalby.

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.