Place:Croft, 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

Croft is a village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, off the old Fosse Way and straddling the River Soar. Nearby places include Stoney Stanton, Broughton Astley, Huncote and Narborough.

The village is about 8 miles (13 km) southwest of Leicester, in the Blaby District of Leicestershire. The civil parish covers an area of 897 acres (3.63 km2) and had a population of 1,639 at the 2011 UK census.

It is local tradition that the parish stone pit at Croft, known as the Clevis, was originally a first-century Roman granite quarry used in the construction of the foundations and bridges of the Fosse Way. The place-name Croft was first recorded in 836, and is derived from the Old English cræft, "craft, a machine, engine". The craft in question could perhaps be that of quarrying. Quarrying is the main industry in Croft right up to the present day.

[The above paragraph is partly a quotation found in Wikipedia and referenced to an article titled Quarrying at Croft by RWD Fenn.]

Research Tips

• 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.