LOST CHURCHES
Of Leicester's medieval parishes, those of St. Peter,
St. Clement and St. Michael, with their churches,
had ceased to exist before 1600, and have never been
revived. The history of these churches is briefly
treated in the following sections.
St. Peter's
St. Peter's Church stood at the corner of West
Bond Street and St. Peter's Lane, (fn. 1) and may have been
in existence before 1066, although it is not mentioned
by name until about 1200. (fn. 2) It is probable that like
other churches in Leicester St. Peter's was given to
the college of St. Mary de Castro in 1107, and
passed into the possession of Leicester Abbey in
1143. (fn. 3) The church had been appropriated to the
abbey by 1220, (fn. 4) and a vicarage was ordained before
1226. (fn. 5) For the rest of the Middle Ages the rectory of
St. Peter's belonged to Leicester Abbey, (fn. 6) and at the
Dissolution it passed to the Crown. The dedication
of the church was changed in 1443, but no details of
the change can be discovered, and the church continued to be known as St. Peter's. (fn. 7) In 1535 the vicarage was estimated to be worth £2 5s. yearly. (fn. 8) In
1563 the building was leased to Leicester Corporation, (fn. 9) and was adapted as a school. (fn. 10) The church had
apparently begun to decay a considerable time before
this, and was no longer used for ecclesiastical purposes. By 1563 there were only 27 families living in
the parish. (fn. 11) The annual value of the living was in
1561 again reckoned at £2 5s., with an additional
4s. 6d. from tithes. (fn. 12) In 1563 the bells were being
listed, and in the following year one was sold to
raise money for the repair of the school building. (fn. 13)
But the fabric was too far decayed to stand up to
continual repair, and in 1573 the queen sold the
church fabric to the corporation for £35, for the
building of a 'substauncyall scoole howse meet and
fitt for childarne to bee taught in'. (fn. 14) In 1591, after
some dispute, the parish was united with that of All
Saints. (fn. 15) By 1634 the churchyard was a cabbage
patch. (fn. 16) The exact extent of St. Peter's parish is not
known. Its topography is dealt with under All Saints'.
St. Clement's
It is probable that the advowson of St. Clement's,
like those of other churches in Leicester, was given
by Robert de Beaumont to the college of St. Mary
de Castro in 1107, and transferred to Leicester Abbey
in 1143. (fn. 17) In 1220 St. Clement's is recorded as being
one of the churches in Leicester which belonged to
the abbey, but the church, which was apparently
already appropriated, then scarcely sufficed to support a priest. (fn. 18) In 1221–2 a vicarage was established
at St. Clement's, the vicar being allowed a yearly
stipend of 20s. and a corrody at Leicester Abbey,
besides a corrody for his clerk. (fn. 19) The only later
mention of the church occurs in 1331, when Philip
Danet received a royal licence to give lands to the
hospital of St. Leonard at Leicester so that the
hospital might find a chaplain to perform the divine
offices in St. Clement's Church. (fn. 20) Nichols quotes a
deed referring to a St. Clement's Lane which ran
towards Black Friars from near All Saints' Church,
and on which he supposed that St. Clement's lay. (fn. 21)
He advanced the theory that the church was given to
the Dominicans, (fn. 22) but there is no direct evidence of
this, and such a development would certainly have
been unusual, though perhaps not unknown elsewhere. (fn. 23) St. Clement's had disappeared by 1526. (fn. 24)
St. Michael's
The church of St. Michael was situated near the
west gate of the borough, probably near the corner of
the present Vauxhall Street and Causeway Lane. It
is probable that the advowson of St. Michael's, like
that of other churches in Leicester, was given to the
college of St. Mary de Castro in 1107, and subsequently, in 1143, to Leicester Abbey. (fn. 25) The abbey
certainly possessed the advowson by about 1220, (fn. 26)
and retained it as long as the church continued to
exist. (fn. 27) Little information exists about the church; it
had a priest and another cleric in 1200, (fn. 28) but about
1220 it was said to be so poor that it was scarcely
able to support a priest at all. (fn. 29) It is not clear whether
the church had been appropriated by 1220 or not. (fn. 30)
Probably it had, for in 1221–2 a vicarage was established on the same terms as that at St. Clement's. (fn. 31)
By the end of the 15th century St. Michael's had
become very poor. There was no vicar in 1487, (fn. 32)
and the church was probably disused by about 1500.
It is not mentioned in the records of the episcopal
visitation of Leicester made in 1510. (fn. 33) The parish
seems to have been united with that of St. Peter's. (fn. 34)
The churchyard was sold to William Dethick, the
town clerk, in 1592. (fn. 35) In spite of the disappearance
of the church mention was made as late as the early
17th century of St. Michael's parish. (fn. 36) A guild was
attached to the church during the 14th century, but
apart from two bequests made to it during that
century nothing is known about it. (fn. 37)