Holt, Leicestershire Genealogy

England   Leicestershire

Parish History
Nevill Holt St Giles is a chapelry within Nevill Holt Hall in the Ancient parish of Medbourne, Leicestershire.

HOLT, a chapelry, in the parish of Medbourne, union of Uppingham, hundred of Gartree, S. division of the county of Leicester, 4 miles (W. N. W.) from Rockingham; containing, with the hamlet of Bradley, 40 inhabitants. This chapelry, sometimes called Holt with Bradley, comprises 1097 acres of land, which was mostly in open fields until the inclosure in 1844. Bradley Priory, which stood on the west side of the township, and had an estate here of about 500 acres, was founded by Robert Buoneby, about 1200, for Augustine canons: the site is now occupied by modern dwelling-houses. Holt Hall is a large and handsome mansion, beautifully seated on an eminence commanding extensive views, and is surrounded by pleasure-grounds. The chapel is dedicated to St. Giles, and has a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, and a tower crowned by a lofty spire. There is also a Roman Catholic place of worship. A spring, impregnated with iron and aluminous and calcareous salts, was discovered in 1728, and is called the Nevill-Holt water.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 533-537. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51039 Date accessed: 12 May 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Neville Holt like this:

HOLT, or NEVILL-HOLT, a township-chapelry in Medbourne parish, Leicester; near the river Welland, and the boundaries with Northampton and Rutland, 2 miles NNE of Medbourne Bridge r. station, and 7½ NNE of Market-Harborough. Post town, Medbourne, under Market-Harborough. Acres, 1, 300. Real property, £2, 397. Pop., 33. Houses, 9. The manor belongs to Cosmo Nevill, Esq. Holt Hall, a large castellated mansion, on a bold eminence with fine views, is the seat of B. Thornton, Esq. Extensive blast furnaces were erected in 1864, for working recently discovered iron ore. There is a mineral spring, which, till a recent period, was in high repute for glandular complaints. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the rectory of Medbourne, in the diocese of Peterborough. The church stands close to Holt Hall; consists of nave, transept, and chancel, with embattled tower and lofty spire; and contains some good monuments.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
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Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Uppingham Poor Law Union, Rutland

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Leicestershire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
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Web sites
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