Place:Smeeton Westerby, Leicestershire, England

Watchers
NameSmeeton Westerby
Alt namesEsmeditonesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 163
Smitetonesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 163
Smitonesource: Domesday Book (1985) p 163
Smeeton-Westerbysource: Family History Library Catalog
Smeetonsource: village making up the parish
Westerbysource: village making up the parish
TypeTownship, Civil parish
Coordinates52.533°N 1°W
Located inLeicestershire, England
See alsoKibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire, Englandparish in which it was a township
Gartree Hundred, Leicestershire, Englandhundred in which the parish was included
Market Harborough Rural, Leicestershire, Englandrural district, 1894 - 1974
Harborough District, Leicestershire, Englanddistrict municipality from 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Smeeton Westerby is a village and civil parish in the Harborough District of Leicestershire, England. It is located in the countryside approximately nine miles southeast of Leicester. It is close to Saddington, Kibworth and Fleckney and is situated 500m north of the Grand Union Canal. The nearest railway station is approximately 6.8 miles away and located in Market Harborough.

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

"SMEETON-WESTERBY, a township-chapelry in Kibworth-Beauchamp parish, Leicester; ½ a mile S of Kibworth [railway] station, 1 NE of the Grand Union canal, and 5¼ NW of Market Harborough. Post town, Kibworth-Harcourt, under Leicester. Real property: £3,293. Population: 533. Houses: 114. The property is much subdivided. The canal here burst its banks in Sept. 1865, and was emptied for a distance of 10 miles. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough. Value: £200. Patron: the Rector of Kibworth. The church was built in 1849."

Originally Smeeton and Westerby were two separate hamlets, but they became a single civil parish in 1866. Today there is just one settlement with the double name.

Research Tips