Place:Croxton Keyrial, Leicestershire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

NOTE: There is division between sources as to the spelling of this parish. WeRelate has followed the Family History Catalogue with Croxton-Keyrial but Wikipedia and A History of Britain through Time both give Croxton Kerrial. GENUKI lists Croxton Keyrial in its index, but uses Croxton Kerrial as the title for the page. Croxton-Keyrial may have, over time, been replaced by Croxton Kerrial. The name is commonly pronounced "crow-sun kerry-ul".

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Croxton-Keyrial is a village and civil parish in the Melton District (or borough) of Leicestershire, England. It is 6.6 miles (10.6 km) to the southwest of Grantham and 7.9 miles (12.7 km) northeast of Melton Mowbray and 0.5 mile (0.8 km) west of Leicestershire's boundary with Lincolnshire. The civil parish of Croxton-Keyrial, which includes the outlying hamlet of Branston (which was absorbed in 1936), had a population of 490 in 2001.

In medieval times, Croxton Abbey, a Premonstratensian house, lay within the locality. (Wikipedia has an article on Croxton Abbey.)

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

"CROXTON-KEYRIAL, a parish in the [registration] district of Grantham and county of Leicester; at the head of the river Devon, adjacent to Lincolnshire, 7 miles W of Great Ponton [railway] station, and 7 SW of Grantham. It has a post office, of the name of Croxton, under Grantham. Acres: 3,900. Real property: £5,737. Population: 594. Houses: 124. Croxton Park was formerly the Duke of Rutland's hunting-seat; and it has long been noted for races, held about the end of March; but the mansion on it, built in 1730, was lately taken down. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value: £265. Patron: the Duke of Rutland. The church is later English; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with porch and square-embattled tower; and is in good condition. There are a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £69."

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.

Geography

Croxton Kerrial can be described as a hilly area, with the highest point within the locality being five hundred feet above sea level. Nearby Branston lies much lower. Much of the land surrounding Croxton Kerrial is arable, and has been used as farmland for centuries.

Nearby places are Knipton and Harston (both in Belvoir parish), Belvoir Castle, Hungerton (over the border in Lincolnshire), Eaton and Sproxton. South Croxton is a separate village and civil parish some distance away in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, named with reference to its situation south of Croxton Kerrial.

Further notes

An ancestor was born in Croxton-Keyrial, Leicestershire, however an 1851 Census gives his birth place as "Crowson, Lincolnshire".

The local pronunciation of Croxton-Keyrial sounds like Crowson. Croxton-Keyrial is in Leicestershire, but for census purposes it was in the Grantham (Lincolnshire) Registration District.

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.