EVINGTON
The nucleus of the ancient parish of Evington lies
some 2½ miles south-east of the centre of Leicester.
The area of the ancient parish, formerly in Gartree
hundred, was about 1,950 acres. The total population
of the Spinney Hill ward and the old village, which
covered most of the ancient parish, was 30,081 in
1931. (fn. 1) The boundaries of the ancient parish ran along
Mere Road, the Willow Brook, Uppingham Road,
Spencefield Lane, Stoughton Road, (fn. 2) Evington Brook,
and part of Evington Lane. To the east of Spencefield Lane, however, the boundary included a considerable area beyond that road, adjoining Thurnby.
The surface soil is largely Boulder Clay, except in the
valley of the Evington Brook, where there is Lower
Lias Clay and limestone. The village of Evington
itself was built on a patch of sand and gravel, close to
the south-eastern boundary of the parish and not far
from the Roman Gartree road which forms part of
its southern boundary. A prehistoric trackway from
Tilton passed through the northern part of the parish
to the ridge known as Crown Hills. (fn. 3) About onethird of the parish, lying in the north next to the
borough boundary, was transferred to Leicester
County Borough in 1892 as North Evington civil
parish. It was absorbed in Leicester civil parish in
1896. The new boundary between Evington and the
borough ran across the fields from Uppingham road
to a point near the present Highway Road. Evington
civil parish, which had remained outside the borough,
was dissolved in 1936. The greater part was transferred to Leicester and the two remaining pieces
became parts of Stoughton civil parish and Oadby
urban district respectively. (fn. 4)
The character of the village has greatly changed in
recent years from that of a village with primarily
agricultural interests to that of an industrial and
residential suburb of Leicester. In the old village the
oldest surviving buildings are probably two thatched
cottages dating from the mid-18th century. The hall,
built in the 1830's for Henry Coleman, is a stucco
house and is now a convent school. (fn. 5) Evington House
was built in 1836 (fn. 6) and is a brick house, with some
later additions. It retains some of its original glass
and a pleasant mahogany staircase. It stands in what
is now a public park and is used as a corporation
restaurant. The village green still survives as a
recreation ground for children. The Cedars Hotel,
formerly the home of the novelist, E. Phillips Oppenheim, was opened as a public house in 1937. (fn. 7)
Manor.
In 1086 10½ carucates of land in EVINGTON were held by Hugh de Grentemesnil and under
him by his sub-tenant, Ivo, who was also probably
the holder of Cadeby and Ashby de la Zouche. (fn. 8) There
was also 1 carucate held from the king by Robert de
Buci, which had passed to Richard Basset by c. 1130.
After the death of Hugh de Grentemesnil his property descended to the earls of Leicester and became
part of their honour. (fn. 9) The overlordship of Evington
remained in the hands of the earls of Leicester until
1265 when it was granted after the forfeiture of
Simon de Montfort to Henry Ill's son Edmund of
Lancaster. Edmund's successors, the earls and dukes
of Lancaster, remained overlords of the manor of
Evington until the Duchy of Lancaster was merged
with the Crown in 1399. (fn. 10)
Before 1239 the manor had been subinfeudated to
Richard de Grey, who received a grant of free warren
in Evington in that year. (fn. 11) He was a member of the
Derbyshire family of Grey of Codnor, and he and
his descendants held Evington as sub-tenants until
the end of the 15th century. In 1265 the then Sir
Richard de Grey, constable of Dover Castle, who had
fought for his lord, Simon de Montfort, at Evesham,
forfeited his lands to the king. (fn. 12) Evington was restored to his son John at some date before his death
in 1271, when he was holding the manor of the honour of Leicester for the service of 3½ knight's fees. (fn. 13)
By 1299 the service had been reduced to that of 1½
fee (fn. 14) and by 1346 to only ½ fee. (fn. 15) During the 15th
century the manor was held in trust for the Greys at
least from 1434, when Henry, Lord Grey, conveyed
it to three trustees. (fn. 16) When he died ten years later his
heir was a minor, and the service by which he held
the manor was unknown. (fn. 17) In or just after 1491 it was
acquired by Sir William Stanley, who held it for the
service of 1 knight's fee and a yearly rent of 4s. (fn. 18) In
1494 Stanley was attainted for his support of the
pretender Perkin Warbeck and his property was
seized by the king. (fn. 19) The king leased the manor to
Robert Orton, bailiff of Leicester, in 1500 for 40 years
at a yearly rent of £50. At an unknown date Orton
assigned his lease to the Leicester merchant, Roger
Wigston. (fn. 20) In 1510 Henry VIII granted the overlordship of the manor to Anne, one of the daughters
of Edward IV and wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of
Surrey, as part compensation for lands claimed in
right of her great-grandmother. Provision was made
in this grant that the earl was to have no rights in the
property and was merely a tenant by courtesy. In
1520 he duly returned the letters patent which had
given the land to his wife, who was then dead, and at
the same time he released to the king, to the cofferer
of the royal household, and to the tenant, Robert
Orton, all the actions which he might thereafter
bring against the manor. (fn. 21) In 1527 Roger Wigston, as
the assignee of Orton, surrendered his lease to the
king, (fn. 22) possibly as a result of the grant of the manor
again in 1526 to George Hastings, who was created
Earl of Huntingdon in 1529. (fn. 23) The Hastings family
retained the manor until 1616, when it was sold
to William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, whose
family held it for the next hundred years. (fn. 24)
In or about 1734 it was purchased by Dr. James
Sherrard of Eltham. (fn. 25) Under the provisions of his
will, dated 1737, the manor was to be divided at his
death among his five nieces. When this division was
affirmed by Act of Parliament in 1761, the ownership of the manor passed into the hands of five
families. (fn. 26) The new owners were Mary and John
Edwyn of Baggrave, Christian and Richard Sharpe
of Wing (Rut.), Ann and Henry Coleman of Market
Harborough, Elizabeth and Samuel Taylor of the
same place, and Susanna and the Revd. Samuel
Statham of Loughborough. These shares descended
to the three families who held Evington in the 19th
century: the Kecks, who held the Statham portion,
the Burnabys, descended from the Edwyns, and the
Colemans. There was in the last century no longer
any lord in a position of authority in the village, although the lordship of the manor was divided in
1846 between the three owners, and had passed to
the Keck branch by 1877. (fn. 27) In 1916 most of the
property in the village belonged to Thomas PowysKeck, (fn. 28) who sold his estate very shortly after the end
of the First World War. The chief purchaser was
the Co-operative Wholesale Society, which in 1955
still owned a great deal of property in the district. (fn. 29)
Economic History.
In 1086 Evington was
assessed at 11½ carucates, of which Ivo, the principal
tenant, held 10½. On this land he had 3 ploughs and
6 serfs in demesne; there were also 25 villeins and 2
bordars with 5½ ploughs. There was a mill and 20
acres of meadow, and the value of the manor had increased from 40s. in the time of Edward the Confessor
to 100s. at the date of the survey. (fn. 30) The remaining
carucate was held by Robert de Buci, who had land
for half a plough on his demesne, while his four
villeins held land for one plough. His holding was
worth 5s. (fn. 31)
The village was small and the inhabitants few, and
the extent of land under cultivation remained unchanged until at least 1279, when there were still
only 12 ploughlands. Four ploughlands and 1 virgate were held in demesne by the lord of the manor,
and a further 4 carucates were held in villeinage.
Three free tenants held 1 virgate each and another
had a whole ploughland. (fn. 32) In 1265 the manor was
worth £30. (fn. 33) In 1298 John Dyve of Baldeston
(Notts.) died seised of 4 virgates in Evington, held
of William de Bosco; (fn. 34) the land was inherited by his
sister, from whom descended the Bussy family, who
held land in Evington throughout the 14th century. (fn. 35)
In the inquisition made in 1308 after the death of
Henry de Grey, the extent of the manor reveals an
interesting change. There were then only 12 bovates
in demesne (about 2½ ploughlands), with the manor
house, a dovehouse, 2 ponds and wind- and watermills. There were no less than 19 free tenants, of
whom only 4 paid any sort of rent in kind, and 36
customary tenants who paid a money rent and did
only 6 days' service yearly of harrowing and reaping.
Twelve cottars paid money rents for their cottages. (fn. 36)
The inquisition into the property of Richard de Grey
made 20 years later in 1335 shows that the lord of the
manor had successfully doubled the money rents of
his free tenants and increased the labour services of
the customary tenants. Twenty villeins then performed 220 days' work between them during the
year, and the cottars no longer existed. All the sources
of income in the manor had been made to show a
greater profit. (fn. 37)
The lord of the manor had a park at Evington,
where deer were preserved for hunting. On two
occasions in the 14th century the park was broken
into and deer removed. (fn. 38) The earliest manor-house
very probably stood on the moated site still visible to
the west of the church, where there is also a well. (fn. 39) In
1412–13 payments were made to a carpenter for
rebuilding a house outside the gate of the manorhouse, which had been blown down ventu et tempestate. (fn. 40)
The names of the medieval fields of Evington are
not known, nor are their exact boundaries. At the end
of the 13th century there was a very considerable
increase in the amount of pasture in proportion to
the amount of arable and the impression given in the
few surviving bailiffs' accounts of the 15th century
is that a great deal of this meadow and pasture had
been retained in the demesne, or was separately
leased for a money rent. (fn. 41)
By the nature of its position, away from the main
roads or road junctions, Evington remained virtually
undisturbed until it was inclosed in the 17th century.
The population seems to have remained fairly stable
from the end of the 14th century. The poll tax return
of 1381, which is not altogether reliable, lists 53 adults
who lived in the village and paid tax. (fn. 42) In 1563 there
were still only 31 families. (fn. 43) In 1666 32 persons paid
tax on a total of 61 hearths; (fn. 44) in 1670 28 persons paid
on 56 hearths, and a further 19 were excused on
account of their poverty, giving a total of 47 inhabited houses. (fn. 45) In 1608 as many as 48 persons
defaulted in some way at a sitting of the court. Of
these, 6 were free tenants, 24 leaseholders, 10 tenants
in demesne and 6 cottagers. This, although not a
complete list of tenants of the manor, suggests that
the number of free tenants, as opposed to lease
holders, was small; most of the land was apparently
owned by the lord of the manor. (fn. 46)
This concentration of the land in the lord's possession facilitated the process of inclosure, which
began early in the 17th century. In a survey of inclosed land in Leicestershire made in 1607 there is
no mention of Evington, (fn. 47) but from a map of the
manorial estate of the Earl of Devonshire which was
made in 1627 it is clear that almost the whole of the
parish was inclosed by that time, and it seems likely
that the inclosure took place after the Cavendish
family acquired the manor in 1616. (fn. 48) The Devonshire
estate is shown in this map as consisting entirely of
closes, some of over 100 acres, the whole totalling
more than 1,600 acres, only 350 acres less than the
total extent of the parish. The lord had clearly been
able to inclose at will, and no legal record of the inclosure exists. Strip farming on the old system was
carried on in a small area to the north and east of the
church and is clearly differentiated on the map. A
few of the inclosed fields in the south of the parish
were held by several tenants and jointly farmed, but
most of the land was held by the 35 tenants whose
holdings are separately marked. (fn. 49)
In 1761, 1,800 acres were divided between the
nieces of James Sherrard, some 200 acres more than
the Earl of Devonshire had possessed in 1627. (fn. 50) This
increase was apparently due to the fact that some of
the small freeholders had been bought out, for the
number of freeholders who polled from the parish
was reduced from 7 in 1722 to one in 1775. (fn. 51) After
the division of the manor in 1761, most of the land
seems to have been given over to grazing, and by the
middle of the 19th century there were several substantial graziers in the parish. (fn. 52)
Early in the 18th century a few of the inhabitants
found an occupation in the hosiery industry, and the
first reference to a stockinger in the village occurs as
early as 1704. (fn. 53) The numbers of those engaged in the
trade increased slightly during the 18th century and
some framework-knitting was done in the parish,
although Evington never became a centre of the industry. (fn. 54) The parish remained predominantly agricultural until well into the 19th century, and farmers
and labourers outnumbered those in other occupations. (fn. 55) The descendants of the landowners who came
into possession in 1761 became increasingly prosperous. Prominent among these families were the
Colemans and the Burnabys; Henry Coleman built
Evington Hall about 1830 and the Misses Burnaby
endowed the village school in 1841. (fn. 56)
As late as 1881 the population numbered only
450, (fn. 57) but in the next decade there was a sudden
increase as the result of the development of the north
part of the parish, with a simultaneous change in the
type of employment available as new factories were
built. The number of farm workers declined rapidly
and artisans took their place. The development of
North Evington was primarily the work of Arthur
Wakerley, a Leicester architect, who devoted the
greater part of his working life to the task. His first
purchase of land in North Evington was made in
1885 and from then onwards he concentrated on
building new roads, houses, and factories, and providing public buildings. In 1892 the market square
was laid out and the market hall built. (fn. 58) The new
suburb was separated from the old village by a considerable stretch of open country, and this separation
was further marked by the detachment of North
Evington from the parish in 1892, when it became
part of the borough of Leicester. (fn. 59) In 1905 the Leicester Poor Law Institution was built in North
Evington near Crown Hills; it was taken over by
the City Health Committee in 1930 and is now the
General Hospital. (fn. 60) About the same time an engineering factory and a clothing factory, the first of several,
were built in East Park Road. (fn. 61)
Meanwhile, the old village was being gradually
developed. Some new houses were built and in 1912
the village hall was erected, (fn. 62) but it was not until the
1930's that intensive building began. Since that time
a residential district has grown up linking the village
with North Evington, although there is still a good
deal of open ground around the village, and the
Leicester Golf Course lies between Evington Lane
and Stoughton Road, partly in Oadby Urban District. It was during this period of expansion that the
civil parish of Evington was dissolved and the greater
part transferred to Leicester. Development of a commercial kind continued along Evington Valley Road,
where chemical and engineering works were built.
The Evington House Estate has developed to the
north of the village.
Of the two corporation parks in the parish,
Spinney Hill Park was purchased from the Burnaby
family in 1885 (fn. 63) and Evington Park in 1947. (fn. 64) There
are two farms belonging to the Co-operative Wholesale Society in the northern part of the parish, and
Evington still remains the most rural of any of the
Leicester parishes.
Churches.
The parish of Evington was formerly
a peculiar, at least from 1564 when the vicar had an
exempt jurisdiction, attached to the manor. (fn. 65) As
most of the earlier records have not survived, (fn. 66) little
is known of either peculiar or church. Sir John
Lambe doubted the validity of the claim to peculiar
jurisdiction in 1633. (fn. 67) The peculiar had ceased to
perform any real function by the early 19th century.
Appointments of commissaries (nearly always the
lord of the manor), registrars (the vicars), and apparitors (the parish clerks) survive to 1846, and the court
was sitting yearly as late as 1857, (fn. 68) but there seems to
be only one surviving document showing that cases
were ever dealt with. (fn. 69) By the 1840's all the fees of
the court came from marriage licences and visitations
of the church. (fn. 70) The peculiar seems to have disappeared about 1880. (fn. 71)
In the 12th century the rectory and advowson of
Evington were granted by Ernald de Bosco and John
Humet to Leicester Abbey, (fn. 72) and their grant was
confirmed between 1168 and 1190 by Robert, Earl of
Leicester. (fn. 73) The church was appropriated between
1209 and 1219. (fn. 74) The abbey held the advowson until
the Dissolution, (fn. 75) after which it passed to the king,
and was granted by Edward VI to the Bishop of
Lincoln in 1547. (fn. 76) It was probably at this time that
the peculiar was created, when the lord of the manor
seems to have usurped the jurisdiction. (fn. 77) The bishops
of Lincoln presented to the living until Leicester
became part of the see of Peterborough, when the
advowson was granted to the new bishop. (fn. 78) It is now
in the hands of the Bishop of Leicester. (fn. 79)
The vicarage was endowed by Leicester Abbey
with 6 marks yearly, consisting of various dues, the
altarage, small tithes, and corn tithes from a carucate
of land in the parish. (fn. 80) In 1217 the living was valued
at u marks yearly; in 1254, 12 marks; and in 1291,
20 marks. (fn. 81) In 1535 it was worth £8. (fn. 82) In 1831 it was
worth only £47, but received a grant from Queen
Anne's Bounty in 1840. (fn. 83) The great tithes were the
property of Leicester Abbey and were granted with
the advowson to the Bishop of Lincoln, who held
them until 1840, when they were purchased by the
landowners. (fn. 84) The small tithes were the property of
the vicar. In 1678 they included corn from five yardlands, and wool, lambs, eggs, apples, pigs, and other
offerings from the 24 yardlands which remained
uninclosed. (fn. 85) These seem to have been commuted
for money payments by 1698, when the land which
was old demesne paid 5s.6d. a yardland, new demesne
paid 32s.6d. a yardland, and vacant yardlands 2s. 6d. (fn. 86)
These tithes were exchanged at the division of the
manor in 1761 for an annual payment of £45. (fn. 87) One
acre of land was set aside during the Middle Ages for
the repair of the church. (fn. 88) It had apparently been
lost by 1837 as it is not mentioned in the Charity
Commissioners' Report.
The church of St. Stephen in East Park Road was
built to the design of J. Stockdale Harrison in 1897. (fn. 89)
In 1904 the parish was created from those of Evington and St. Barnabas, New Humberstone. The
Bishop of Leicester is patron. (fn. 90) St. Philip's Church
in Evington Road was built in 1913 at the cost of
I. L. Berridge. (fn. 91) The architects were the Leicester
firm of Pick, Everard. (fn. 92) The patronage is vested in
trustees. (fn. 93) The district church of St. Chad, Coleman
Road, was built in 1922, from the materials of an
iron and brick chapel which was used as a base
chapel in France during the First World War. (fn. 94) It
serves the Coleman Road estate.
The church of ST. DENYS consists of chancel,
nave, north and south aisles, north porch, and west
tower and spire. It is mostly built of random rubble
in a mixture of local stones. The lower stages of the
tower are of roughly squared and coursed stone, and
the clerestory in the north aisle is of ironstone. The
earliest surviving part of the church dates from the
13th century, when it consisted of a chancel, nave
and west tower. The aisles date from the 14th century
and the clerestory was added to the nave in the 15th
century. The porches, which had also been added,
were removed in 1840, the south doorway blocked
and the whole church extensively restored. (fn. 95) In 1867
the chancel was rebuilt in a debased Gothic style. (fn. 96)
A further restoration took place under the direction
of Joseph Goddard of Leicester in 1884. (fn. 97) The north
porch was rebuilt as a war memorial for the First
World War. The roofs, which were renewed during
the 16th century, were repaired in 1840 and some of
the original timbers and carved bosses were used
again.
The modern chancel is of three bays, indicated on
the outside of the building by buttresses on the south
side; there is a blocked doorway in the central bay
on this side. The roof of the chancel is elaborate,
with arched trusses filled in with open tracery, and
traceried panels between the rafter feet. The trusses
rest on carved stone corbels and short shafts. The
floor is paved with encaustic tiles. The unfortunate
effect of the chancel is relieved by its monuments,
which were replaced after the original chancel was
rebuilt. The most interesting is to James Sherrard
(d. 1737), a fine marble wall monument erected by
his wife, and only spoilt by the cramped insertion of
the date of her death at the foot of the inscription.
The nave is of four bays, with arcades of pointed
arches. Those on the north side rest on roughly
squared blocks of masonry, part of the old nave wall.
The lines of an earlier roof may be seen above the
tower arch and the blocked door which once gave
access to the rood loft in the north wall of the nave.
The south aisle is very little later in date, probably of
the very early years of the 14th century or the last
decade of the 13 th. The doorway in the second bay
from the west has been blocked. In the south wall is
a piscina with a mutilated basin. The tracery in the
windows is of the plainest, and contrasts sharply
with that in the windows of the north aisle, which
was probably built about 1350, perhaps by a member
of the Grey family, whose arms appear in the windows. In the centre of the plain parapet to the east
gable of this aisle there is a broken crocketed pinnacle, with a niche below containing a figure of St.
Denis, and a grotesque gargoyle at the angle. At the
west end there are traces of trefoiled panels in the
parapet. The windows at the east and west ends are
contemporary with the aisle, and their tracery is of
considerable interest. The west window is pointed, of
four trefoiled lights with flowing tracery, its hollows
richly studded with dogtooth, masks, and ballflower
ornaments. Inside the arch is supported on slender
columns with foliated capitals. The hollow mouldings
of the tracery are studded with ornament as on the
outside, but on the mullions, which have been restored, this has not been reproduced. The east window is also pointed, of four cinquefoil lights, its roll
moulding forming shafts with foliated capitals and
moulded bases to the arches of the four lights. The
tracery of this and of the second window from the
east in this aisle is filled with fragments of early glass.
That in the east window is mainly heraldic, and includes the arms of the Clare, Warenne, Geneville,
Giffard, and Grey families. That in the side window,
which is less muddled, is clearly in its original position. The quatrefoil panels of the tracery contain
figures of angels.
The doorway in this aisle seems to have been
completely renewed when the porch was built after
the First World War.
The tower rises in three stages, diminished at each
by weathered offsets. The lower stages are built of
roughly squared and coursed stone, and there are
ashlar buttresses on the north and south corners.
Two buttresses were added against the west wall,
probably when the aisles were built. There is a lancet
window on the west wall, but all but one of the smaller
windows which lighted the belfry have been blocked.
From behind the battlemented parapet rises the
graceful octagonal spire, surmounted by a floriated
finial and a weathercock. There are eight windows
set around the spire alternately at the foot of each
face and half-way up.
The font stands in the south aisle. It dates from
the 13th century and has a heavy round bowl, supported upon a thick round column surrounded by
four detached shafts with moulded capitals and
bases, the capitals distorted to fit under the bowl.
The church chest probably dates from the early 16th
century and is 7 feet in length. The registers begin
in 1601. Some of the earlier entries are almost illegible
and there is a gap between 1648 and 1652 (inclusive).
The earliest pieces of plate still in use are a silver cup
and paten dated 1632. (fn. 98) There are four bells, dated
1605, 1637, 1797 (cast by Edward Arnold of Leicester), and 1906. (fn. 99)
Roman Catholicism.
There is no Roman
Catholic church in Evington, which is in the parish
of St. Joseph's Church at Humberstone. (fn. 100) The
Catholic school at Evington Hall was opened in
1939. (fn. 101)
Protestant Nonconformity.
In 1829 it
was estimated that there were in Evington 50 Independents and 20 Primitive Methodists, (fn. 102) and it was
presumably one of these sects which applied in 1811
for a licence for its meeting-place there. (fn. 103) A further
application was made in 1838, (fn. 104) probably for the
chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion,
which was built in the same year at the expense of
Samuel Davenport of Leicester. (fn. 105) The chapel stands
on the green, with the minister's house next door,
and is a delicate building in the Gothic style, with
slender crocketed pinnacles. The west end, which
faces the road, has a crenellated parapet above the
door. The chapel is now (1955) that of the Strict
Baptists. The Primitive Methodist chapel in Leicester Street was built in 1895 for the North Evington
district. (fn. 106)
Mills.
There was a mill in Evington in 1086, held
by the lord of the manor and rendering 2s. yearly. (fn. 107)
This was probably on the same (unknown) site as the
water-mill which was valued at 20s. in 1308, by
which time there was also a windmill, valued at 10s. (fn. 108)
The value of the windmill had increased to 20s. by
1335, but the water-mill is not mentioned in the
extent of the manor which was made in that year. (fn. 109)
There was a water-mill in the early 15th century but
no evidence of its existence after 1413 is to be traced. (fn. 110)
The stream which forms the present boundary with
Oadby was probably never large enough to drive a
large mill. Perhaps the most obvious site for the mill
would be at the junction between this stream and the
now very small one which runs to the west of the
moated site near the church.
School.
The National school was built in 1841 by
the Burnaby family. (fn. 111) It was transferred to the
Leicester Education Committee in 1935. (fn. 112)
Charities.
There are no endowed charities in
Evington.