Kirby Muxloe
| Kirby Muxloe | |
| Leicestershire | |
|---|---|
 Main Street, Kirby Muxloe | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SK519044 |
| Location: | 52°38’6"N, 1°14’3"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 4,523 (2001) |
| Post town: | Leicester |
| Postcode: | LE9 |
| Dialling code: | 0116 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Blaby District |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Charnwood |
| Website: | http://kirbymuxloe.net/ |
Kirby Muxloe is a village in Leicestershire, standing to the west of Leicester beyond the M1 motorway, close to the junction with the A47.
According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 4,523.[1]
The village has a local primary school, which is rated as one of the top schools in the county. There is a chemist, bakery, supermarket, two pubs, a popular sports and social club and a golf club.
Name
The name "Kirby" comes from the Old Danish language. In common with many villages named "Kirkby" it probably means "Church Village", although an alternative theory names it after an otherwise unknown man named Cæri.
The village is recorded as Carbi in the Domesday Book.
Churches=
- Church of England: St Bartholomew's Church
- Free / evangelical: Kirby Muxloe Free Church
History
The village is recorded in the Domesday Book under the name Carbi, and with a working population of eight. At the time the land in Kirby Muxloe was owned by Hugh de Grandesmaynel and by William Peverel.[2]
In 1461, William Hastings, the 1st Baron Hastings of Hungerford, became the Steward of the Honour of Leicester and Ranger of Leicester Forest. His father, Sir Leonard Hastings, had owned a modest estate in Leicestershire and Gloucestershire, where the family had long been established. On 14 April 1474 Hastings acquired the manorial right to Kirby from the Pakeman family, although he had rented it for some years previous to this. In 1480 he began to build the moated Kirby Muxloe Castle during the period of the Wars of the Roses. However Lord Hastings was executed on 13 June 1483 on the orders of King Richard III at the Tower of London for conspiracy; William was caught up in the rivalry for the throne after the death of Richard's father, King Edward IV. Work on the castle therefore stopped.[2][3]
In 1582 the name of village is found recorded as Kirby Muckelby, with variants Mullox and Muckle. About 50 years later in 1628 disafforestation of Leicester Forest occurred, effectively dividing the land near Kirby Muxloe into forest and pasture. The results are visible today. In 1636, the Hastings families sold castle and estates in Kirby and Braunstone to the Winstanley family. The earliest survival in of the spelling 'Kirby Muxloe' was used in 1703 in the Oxford Dictionary of Placenames, which states that 'Muxloe' is a family name. (There was such a family but they lived three miles away, in the village of Desford.)
An early Quaker, John Penford, was a substantial resident of Kirby Muxloe and member of the Leicester Quarterly Meeting. A business meeting of the Society held at his home to consult on works of charity in 1670 was interrupted by informers, with the result that Penford and others were heavily fined.[4]
The railway came to Kirby Muxloe in 1848 when the Midland Railway built a line through Kirby, and on 1 July 1859 Kirby Muxloe railway station opened at Kirby fields. In 1882, the fields known as Far and Near Townsend Close were bought by Kirby Muxloe Land Society. Barwell Road, Castle Road, and Church Road were laid out for the village and building went on over the next 30 years.
In 1911, Kirby Muxloe Castle was handed over to Ministry of Works (from whom English Heritage eventually inherited responsibility for it). Amidst Second World War in 1941 the village was heavily bombed. A German bomber on its way back after attacking Coventry emptied its load on two streets with destruction of a church and several houses. Gaps left in the houses can still be seen to this day.
On 7 September 1964 the Kirby Muxloe railway station closed in the Beeching Axe.
Sports
- Kirby Muxloe Sports Club, incorporating:
- Kirby Muxloe Football Club
- Kirby Muxloe Cricket Club
- Kirby Muxloe Bowls Club
- Kirby Muxloe Archery Club
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kirby Muxloe) |
References
- ↑ Leicestershire County Council. Census 2001 Parish Profile
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Leicestershirevillages.com. Kirby Muxloe Retrieved on 19 July 2007
- ↑ English Heritage. Kirby Muxloe Castle Retrieved on 19 July 2007
- ↑ John Gough, A History of the People Called Quakers (Robert Jackson, Dublin 1790), II, p. 314. read here For local context see R.H. Evans, 'The Quakers of Leicestershire', Leicester Archaeological and Historical Society XXVIII, pp. 63-83. read here