Barrow upon Soar Leicestershire Family History Guide
Barrow upon Soar is an Ancient Parish in the county of Leicestershire. Mountsorrel is a chapelry of Barrow upon Soar.
Other places in the parish include: Mapplewell, Maplewell Longdale, Maplewell, and Beaumanor.
Alternative names:
Parish church: Holy Trinity
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1563
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1564
Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Baptist, Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Sheepshed
- Woodhouse Eaves
- Seagrave
- Woodhouse
- Charley
- Loughborough
- Mountsorrel Christ Church
- Mountsorrel
- Dishley
- Loughborough Emmanuel
- Newtown Linford
- Quorn
- Walton le Wolds
- Sileby
Parish History
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
BARROW-UPON-SOAR (Holy Trinity), a parish, and the head of a union, partly in the hundred of East, but chiefly in that of West, Goscote, N. division of the county of Leicester; containing 5913 inhabitants, of whom 1837 are in Barrow proper, 3 miles (E. S. E.) from Loughborough.
The parish consists of Barrow proper; a part of the market-town of Mountsorrel; the chapelries of Quorndon and Woodhouse, and the consolidated chapelry or district of St. Paul’s, WoodhouseEaves; the manor of Beaumanor; and the hamlets of Mapplewell, Charley, and Alderman-Haw. It comprises 9100 acres of land, the soil of which is of various kinds, from the finest meadow and richest loam to cold clayey and sterile mountain.
The district has for many centuries been noted for its excellent lime, which is made from a hard blue-lias stone, and is extensively used in works where great hardness is necessary: the pier at Ramsgate was built with it, after all other kinds of lime had failed; and from its property of hardening under water, it has been used in Holland. Near Mountsorrel and Quorndon are very extensive and valuable quarries of granite; the midland counties are hence supplied with material for the repair of roads, and the stone is also used for architectural purposes.
In Charnwood forest are quarries of primitive slate, which for centuries has been used for covering buildings, and is in much request for tombstones, and many domestic purposes. Barrow proper, and Mountsorrel and Quorndon, are situated on the river Soar, which is navigable through the parish; and here is an intermediate station of the Midland railway, whose course is continued over the Soar by a viaduct of five arches, each spanning 30 feet.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £15. 2. 8½., and in the patronage of St. John’s College, Cambridge: the tithes have been commuted for 180 acres of land. There are three other incumbencies, in the three chapelries; and places of worship for Wesleyans, Baptists, Primitive Methodists, and Roman Catholics.
The free grammar school is endowed with land producing £110 per annum, bequeathed by the Rev. Humphrey Perkins in 1717.
An almshouse for six widowers or “ancient bachelors” was founded in 1686 by the Rev. Humphrey Babington, who endowed it with an estate now producing about £500 per annum: the number of inmates has been increased to eleven aged men and a nurse, and six aged widows. The whole of the property belonging to the parish, applied to charitable purposes, amounts to about £1400 per annum.
The poor law union of which Barrow is the head, comprises 30 parishes and places, and contains a population of 19,695.
William Beveridge, the learned Bishop of St. Asaph, was born here in 1638, in a house which is still standing.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Leicestershire
- Civil Registration District: Barrow upon Soar
- Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Leicester
- Diocese: Peterborough
- Rural Deanery: Akeley
- Poor Law Union: Barrow upon Soar
- Hundred: East Goscote; West Goscote
- Province: Canterbury