BROMKINSTHORPE
That part of St. Mary's parish which lay to the west
of the River Soar formed the liberty of Bromkinsthorpe. The soil of the area is mostly Triassic Marl
and Sandstone, but on the west bank of the Soar there
is a narrow zone of alluvium with, farther away from
the river, gravel terraces. Boulder Clay, which forms
the surface of so much of the adjacent region, is
almost entirely absent.
The Roman Fosse Way (fn. 1) runs through Bromkinsthorpe, and the remains of a Roman villa have been
discovered on a site near the centre of the liberty. (fn. 2)
It was probably the nature of the surface soil, free
from the heavy clay which covers much land in the
vicinity, that led to the establishment of a villa here,
and it is also possible that the estate which presumably
surrounded the villa occupied roughly the same area
as the later liberty, though this can be no more than a
conjecture. There is no information about Bromkinsthorpe for any date before 1086, and it is therefore impossible to establish any connexion between
the villa's estate and the later liberty.
In 1956 Bromkinsthorpe was largely a residential
district, of a middle-class character. On its eastern
side, bordering on the Soar, there are some warehouses
and factories. The two main roads, once turnpikes,
which run from Leicester to Hinckley and to Narborough respectively, have become the chief highways of the district. The lesser roads in general either
follow the ancient lanes, (fn. 3) or, more frequently, the
field boundaries as they existed in the early 19th
century. (fn. 4) The only building of any note in the liberty
is Wyggeston's Hospital. The present hospital buildings were completed in 1868, and replaced the earlier
hospital in the centre of the borough. (fn. 5) The hospital
is a long range of buildings in the Victorian Gothic
style, built of red brick with facings of Bath stone
and a tiled roof. At the north end of the range stands
the chapel, with a slender stone spire at its southwest corner, and an apse at the north end. The hospital stands in extensive and well wooded grounds. (fn. 6)
In 1086 it was said of Bromkinsthorpe that 'This
land belongs to Leicester with all its customary dues'. (fn. 7)
The exact nature of the link between Leicester and
Bromkinsthorpe at this time is, however, obscure.
There does not appear to be any evidence that the
Leicester burgesses ever exercised common pasture
rights in the fields of Bromkinsthorpe, or that
Bromkinsthorpe ever constituted one of the borough's
open fields, in the way that the east and south fields
did. It is, on the other hand, clear from the position in
1086, as stated in Domesday, and from the fact that
during the Middle Ages Bromkinsthorpe seems always to have been considered as lying within the
jurisdiction of the borough authorities, that there
was a close connexion between the liberty and the
borough, and that Bromkinsthorpe, though separated
from Leicester by the Soar, was never a rural township clearly outside the borough. In this Bromkinsthorpe may be contrasted with Knighton, which
although within St. Margaret's parish for ecclesiastical purposes was never under borough control until
1892. (fn. 8) It is possible that Bromkinsthorpe had once
formed one of Leicester's open fields, and that the
burgesses had possessed there common rights of
which they had been deprived, perhaps by the action
of Hugh de Grentemesnil at some date between the
Conquest and 1086.
Manors.
In 1086 Hugh de Grentemesnil held 6
carucates of land at Bromkinsthorpe, together with a
further 2 carucates there which belonged to the soke
of Ratby. (fn. 9) Four sokemen in Smeeton (fn. 10) were attached
to Hugh's land at Bromkinsthorpe. (fn. 11) Like most of
Hugh's other lands in England, Bromkinsthorpe
came in the 12th century into the hands of the Earls
of Leicester. (fn. 12) By the 13th century two manors
existed.
The manor of WALSH HALL, or DANET'S
HALL, was held from the earls of Leicester, and
subsequently from their successors, the earls and
dukes of Lancaster. The first mention of the family
of Walsh, or Waleys, in connexion with Bromkinsthorpe occurs in 1279, when William le Waleis is
stated to have been a tenant of lands there formerly
held from Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. (fn. 13)
The Walsh family continued to be important landholders at Bromkinsthorpe until the 14th century. (fn. 14)
From the fact that the manor was subsequently
known as Walsh Hall (fn. 15) it may be conjectured that the
family was at one time possessed of it, but there is no
other evidence that the lands which the Walshes held
in Bromkinsthorpe constituted a manor. The ownership of the manor is not clear before 1428, when it was
being held by Richard Danet. (fn. 16) The Danet family
had been possessed of lands in Bromkinsthorpe for
more than 200 years before 1428; Amaur Danet
owned a mill there in 1200, (fn. 17) and during the 13th and
14th centuries various members of the family appear
as important landowners in Bromkinsthorpe. (fn. 18) The
Danet family continued to be lords of the manor (fn. 19)
until at least 1647. (fn. 20) Subsequently, before 1681, the
manor came into the hands of a family called Charlton, who were descended from the Danets. (fn. 21) About
1700 the manor was acquired by the Watts family,
who held it until 1769. (fn. 22) After the death in that year
of John Watts the property changed hands repeatedly;
it was first sold to a Mr. Weightman, and then passed
by successive purchases to Samuel Unwin, to a Mr.
Powell, and to William Bentley. (fn. 23) Neither the Watts
family, nor any of their successors, are referred to as
lords of the manor, though they were the owners of
the estate formerly held by the Danets, and the manor
as such seems to have disappeared by the start of the
18th century. In 1804 Danet's Hall was bought by
Dr. Edward Alexander, (fn. 24) on whose death, in 1825,
it came to Elizabeth Kershaw, (fn. 25) and subsequently to
Dr. Joseph Noble. (fn. 26) After Dr. Noble's death, the
property was sold in 1861 to the Leicester Freehold
Land Society for building. (fn. 27)
The manor of WESTCOTES in Bromkinsthorpe
was for most of the Middle Ages held by Leicester
Abbey. The abbey's holding originated in a grant of
land by Robert FitzParnell, Earl of Leicester, (fn. 28) and
in a gift of a manor in Bromkinsthorpe by Ranulph
Portarius, who became a canon of the abbey. (fn. 29) The
abbey also obtained a smaller grant of land in Bromkinsthorpe from Seward Pitefrid. (fn. 30) The exact dates
of these three grants are not known, but FitzParnell's
must have been made between his accession to the
earldom in 1191 and his death in 1204; in all probability FitzParnell's grant was made in or shortly
before 1204, for it formed part of a complicated
series of property exchanges between the earl, Leicester Abbey, and the Bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 31) The
manor in Bromkinsthorpe granted to the abbey by
Ranulph may be the same property as the 7 virgates
and 1 bovate outside the West Gate of Leicester
confirmed to the abbey by Henry II in a charter
granted between 1154 and 1162. (fn. 32) The manor of
Westcotes remained in the hands of Leicester Abbey
until the Dissolution. On the surrender of the abbey
in 1538 (fn. 33) its lands came to the Crown. In 1557 a
survey of the manor was made with a view to selling
it to John Ruding, (fn. 34) whose father, another John
Ruding, in 1536 had leased the manor from the
abbey for 81 years, (fn. 35) but in August of the same year
the Crown sold Westcotes to two speculators in
monastic lands, Thomas Reve and Richard Budde, (fn. 36)
who in 1558 sold it to the younger John Ruding. (fn. 37) The
manor remained in the hands of the Ruding family
until 1821, when Walter Ruding sold it to Thomas
Freer, Clerk of the Peace of Leicestershire. (fn. 38) Freer's
son in turn sold the property to Joseph Harris, a
Leicester solicitor, before 1846. (fn. 39) By the time of
Harris's purchase of the property the manor as such
seems to have ceased to exist.
Economic History.
The possibility that Bromkinsthorpe had once formed one of Leicester's open
fields, and that the burgesses had once enjoyed common rights there, has already been discussed. (fn. 40) An
extent of Leicester Abbey's lands in Bromkinsthorpe,
drawn up in 1381, shows that the arable land was
then divided into strips of the usual type. (fn. 41) In 1448
there were three open fields in Bromkinsthorpe. (fn. 42)
Alongside the Soar lay several meadows. (fn. 43) At the
final inclosure of Leicester Forest in 1628 106 acres
were allotted to the freeholders of Bromkinsthorpe
in compensation for the rights of common pasture
which they had hitherto enjoyed in Leicester Forest.
The land allotted lay in the part of the forest which
was immediately adjacent to the western boundary of
Bromkinsthorpe. After this addition the total area of
the west field, and of the meadows adjacent to it on
the west bank of the Soar, was perhaps about 800
acres. (fn. 44) Bromkinsthorpe seems to have been inclosed
piecemeal during the 16th and 17th centuries. A
late-16th-century terrier shows strips in the open
fields as already partly consolidated, and apparently
some inclosure had by then taken place. (fn. 45) In 1628
there was still a considerable area of open land, (fn. 46)
and the fact that at the inclosure of Leicester Forest
in the same year holdings in Bromkinsthorpe were
described in terms of virgates (fn. 47) suggests that the
arable fields were still largely open. When the inclosure was completed cannot be stated, but it was
probably not long after 1628.
Bromkinsthorpe is separated from the area of the
old walled borough of Leicester by the River Soar,
which until the flood prevention works of the late
19th century was here divided into several channels,
running through a stretch of marshy ground. (fn. 48) The
existence of this natural barrier for long prevented
the growth of any substantial suburb in Bromkinsthorpe. At first the only connexion between the
walled borough and Bromkinsthorpe was by a rather
circuitous route, running from the West Gate to cross
the main channel of the Soar over the West Bridge,
and then along the Augustine Friars island to Bow
Bridge, which crosses a subsidiary channel of the
river to link the island with Bromkinsthorpe. The
West Bridge is mentioned in 1325, though it probably already existed in the 12th century. (fn. 49) Bow Bridge
existed by 1520; (fn. 50) it may have existed earlier, and is
traditionally said to have been used by Richard III
in 1485. (fn. 51) Braunstone Gate Bridge, which crosses the
subsidiary channel of the Soar to the south of Bow
Bridge, and provides a more direct connexion between the southern part of Bromkinsthorpe and the
walled borough, appears first on a map drawn about
1600. (fn. 52) Until the 19th century Bromkinsthorpe, despite its nearness to the town, remained almost
entirely rural, and in 1802 the only houses, apart from
the two mansions of Danet's Hall and Westcotes, lay
along either side of Braunstone Gate, (fn. 53) a road running
from Braunstone Gate Bridge to the Narborough
road. (fn. 54) Even in the early 19th century Bromkinsthorpe still remained a pleasant country district,
where the inhabitants of Leicester could stroll. (fn. 55)
The grounds of the two manor houses, Westcotes
and Danet's Hall, were improved about this time. (fn. 56)
Gradually, however, buildings began to encroach.
The first factory to be built in Bromkinsthorpe was a
notable structure in the 19th-century Gothic style,
the Bow Bridge Mills, which still exists. It is not
known when this factory was built, but it already
existed in 1828. (fn. 57) During the first half of the 19th
century buildings encroached only slowly on the
agricultural land and by 1852 the only part of Bromkinsthorpe that had been built over was a small area
immediately to the west of the two bridges over the
Soar. (fn. 58) The new streets in this area, built on the
alluvium of the river valley, were liable to flooding,
and were very inadequately provided with sewers. (fn. 59)
It was not until after 1860 that buildings began to
spread rapidly in Bromkinsthorpe. Danet's Hall was
sold for building in 1861, (fn. 60) and three years later the
site of the hall and its grounds was already built
over. (fn. 61) Many other sales of land for building occurred
in 1860–70. (fn. 62) In 1886 the old mansion of Westcotes
was demolished, and its grounds built over. (fn. 63) By
about 1900 the whole eastern half of Bromkinsthorpe,
that is, the half that lay nearest to the borough
centre, had been laid out in streets. (fn. 64) By 1938
virtually the whole of Bromkinsthorpe had been
built up. (fn. 65)
Other aspects of the history of Bromkinsthorpe,
namely its administrative and ecclesiastical history
and the history of the parochial charities in which it
shared, have been described above, as they are part
of the history of St. Mary's parish as a whole. (fn. 66)