Place:Holwell, Leicestershire, England

Watchers
NameHolwell
Alt namesHolewellesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 161
TypeChapelry, Civil parish
Coordinates52.8°N 0.917°W
Located inLeicestershire, England     ( - 1936)
See alsoFramland Hundred, Leicestershire, Englandhundred in which the parish was included
Melton Mowbray Rural, Leicestershire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1936
Ab Kettleby, 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 Holwell from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HOLWELL, a township-chapelry in Ab Kettleby parish, Leicester; 3½ miles NNW of Melton-Mowbray [railway] station. Post town: Melton-Mowbray. Real property: £1,838. Population: 147. Houses: 32. The manor belongs to the Earl of Dysart. There is a chalybeate spring, called Holwell Mouth. The living is a [perpetual] curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Ab Kettleby, in the diocese of Peterborough. The church is a small building, with a bell-turret. There are a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £4."

Holwell became a civil parish in 1866 and in 1894 became part of the Melton Mowbray Rural District. In 1936 it was abolished and the area was transferred to the neighbouring parish of Ab Kettleby.

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 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.