Place:Saxelby, Leicestershire, England

Watchers
NameSaxelby
Alt namesSaxelbiesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 162
Saxelbyesource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeParish (ancient), Civil parish
Coordinates52.783°N 0.95°W
Located inLeicestershire, England     ( - 1936)
See alsoEast Goscote Hundred, Leicestershire, Englandhundred in which the parish was included
Melton Mowbray Rural, Leicestershire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1935
Grimston, Leicestershire, Englandcivil parish 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 Saxelby from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"SAXELBY, a parish in Melton-Mowbray [registration] district, Leicester; 2¼ miles N N W of Kirby [railway] station, and 4 W N W of Melton-Mowbray. Post-town, Melton-Mowbray. Acres: 1,290. Real property: £1,244. Population: 120. Houses: 24. The manor belongs to the Earl of Aylesford. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value: £227. Patron: the Earl of Aylesford. The church is old but good, and has a tower and spire. There are a national school, and charities £16."

Saxelby was absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Grimston in 1936.

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.