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CHAPTER XIII.
Historical notes and Local Stories.
An inventory of goods belonging to the Church of East Leake was made on September 4th, 1553, being the sixth year of Edward VI. This exists, and runs as follows:— “Est Leyke 4 Sep, 6 Edw VI. Imprimis a chales sylver parcel gylt with patent, one vestment red saten, and one old vestment red grene sylke, and one vestment rosite and grene say, one cokope grene say, ii albis, ii alter Clothes, iii towelles, one surplis, ii brase candlestikes, a crosse of brasse, and iii belles." Following this, is the note about the missing sacring bell which is given above.1
On the 8th of May, in the following year, the Commissioners of Church goods delivered the chalice and paten, and three bells, above mentioned, to Robert Watson, Curate of East Leake.
On the 17th September, 1644, there was a skirmish on the East side of East Leake, in the field known as Brickley, between men of the Royalist garrison of Ashby-de-la-Zouch2, and men of the Parliamentary Garrison, of Leicester. The Leicester troops were conducting a convoy to Nottingham, and the Ashby garrison, getting wind of it, attacked, but were defeated, and driven off with loss. Bailey, in his “Annals of Notts.,” says that eight men were killed, and sixty taken prisoners. Four of these eight were buried in East Leake Churchyard, being “slaine . . in our Lordship,” as the register records. Their burial place is reputed to be beneath a slab nearly opposite to the porch.
Various relics of this skirmish have been found from time to time. A sword was unearthed by a plough on Brickley; and broken weapons were found on the South side of The Sik, on the Lings Farm, when that field was first broken up, about sixty years ago.
A cannon ball, now in Loughborough Museum, which was found about 1890, in the basement of an old bakehouse near the bottom of Castle Lane, may have been fired in this engagement. It was found embedded some nine inches in the limestone foundation of the building on the South side, i.e., in the direction in which the fighting took place.
HISTORIC SITES.
The Castle.—A tradition, which can certainly be traced back for four generations, claims that there was once a Castle at the East end of the village. The road leading from the village to Loughborough was formerly called Castle Lane, and that district is still popularly known as The Castle. The fields near are also called Castle Closes.
This may be a lingering memory of an ancient earthwork, or stronghold, of which traces are visible West of Castle Lane; or, more probably, of a Castle built and demolished in the troubled reign of Stephen. In that reign most of the lords, of manors built Castles or fortified houses; and at its close, in 1153, a large number of the 1,115 which had been built were destroyed because they menanced the authority of the King. When Henry II came to the throne, in 1154, he demolished the remainder of these Castles.
The Manor House, or The Hall.—From the 12th or 13th century a Manor House stood in the field due West of the Church, Known as The Hall Orchard Field. We learn from the mural monument in Bunney Church, that Sir Thomas Parkyns3 purchased “ye Manors and Estate in Est Leake . . . . of ye Armstrongs." This was at the close of the 17th century.
The same monument says that “He built ye Manor House in . . . East Leake.” Sir Thomas early developed his taste, or passion, for building. He who dearly loved to throw his opponent in the wrestling match, threw down old buildings to raise them in greater magnificence. So it came about that the old Hall of East Leake gave place to another, of the Baronet’s own design.
It is a fortunate thing that before this new Hall was destroyed, Mr. John Hardy, of East Leake, copied the inscription on the East facade. To this we owe our knowledge of the date, and other circumstances connected with the building of the house. The inscription ran thus:—“Hasce AEdis Excogitabuit Delinearuit et operariis non modo Quotidie Interfuit Uerum Etiam praefuit quasi archetectus Thomas Parkyns 2dus Gentis suae Baronettas. AD. 1704.”
Translated into Sir Thomas’ English,4 this will read:— “Thomas Parkyns, the second Baronet of his family, contrived and drew this house ; and not only was daily present with the workmen, but also superintended as architect. A.D. 1704.”
The house was never finished. Local tradition is very clear upon this point. Some have conversed with those who in childhood played in the unfinished rooms of the Hall; others remember their parents telling them that a few poor folk ; made the rooms which were finished their dwellings.
After a time, the house was sold for building materials, and it is said that the bridge over the Soar at Kegworth and a farmhouse at West Leake were built out of it. Some of the old stone from the building remains in the village in the copings of the pinfold, and the old churchyard wall. The belfry doorway is probably made from material derived from the same source.
The foundations, which are still to some extent traceable, indicate that the Hall was a building of large proportions.
Sir Thomas’ Hall was built across the Western side of the moat which enclosed the old manor house. This moat, in part visible, appears to have enclosed about three acres of ground. The moat measured about 160 by 84 yards.
Calke Hall.—mis-spelt in old maps and documents Cork, Chauke, and Chaulke—is the outlying farmyard of the Rectory farm, situated at the West border of the parish, on the bridle road from Rempstone to Kegworth. The name recalls the connection of the property with Calke Abbey, in Leicestershire, in the 12th century. There are no traces of the Hall or house which the Canons of Calke had there for their managing bailiff. The present barn was erected in 1803 by the Rev. Theoph. H. Hastings, out of the material of an old barn on the Rectory premises at West Leake.
The Three Horse Shoes Inn.—This is the oldest of the village inns, and has an interesting history apart from the sessions of the magistrates, which were formerly held there. The present house is the second to bear the sign and name. The original Three Horse Shoes Inn is the old smithy house on The Green. The sign post was in position until a time within the memory of the present occupant of the house.
The sign has its own interest, for it can be accounted for by the coat of arms of the Touks, of Leake. By omitting the chevronel from the coat of arms you have at once the sign of the Three Horse Shoes. If this origin5 of the sign is correct, the village has in this house an historic link with one of the leading families in the 12th century.
Inns of the past.—The Windmill Inn stood in the garden in front of Brookside Farmhouse. It boasted a sign carved in oak.
The Wagon Inn was situated in the Nook, and its sign post can still be seen.
Instruments of Punishment.—The Cuckstool was fixed by the brook, opposite the Windmill Inn, but no one remembers its existence.
The Stocks, which were used far into the 19th century, were fixed against the pinfold facing the old Three Horse Shoes Inn.
LOCAL STORIES.
In the 18th century the hills on the North West of the parish were studded with stately oaks. The various owners of land had common rights to this timber, proportionate to their property. As lord of the manor, Sir Thomas Parkyns had considerable rights, which he exercised, to the full extent. The parishioners considered that he had largely exceeded his rights, and determined to prevent him from felling more timber. Sir Thomas bad sent his men one day from Bunney, and they were engaged in felling, when they found a superior force approaching from East Leake, consisting of the farmers and their labourers. The men of East Leake drove off Sir Thomas’ men, and the story goes that this bloodless .victory put an end to the depredations.
Another story of the Leake hills is worth preserving. Joseph Burton, the father of the late clerk of the parish Church, used to tell the story, as he had received it from his father, that in 1745, when Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, made his dash upon England, and came as far as Derby, the farmers of the Derwent and Soar valley, fearing for their cattle, drove them South. Many of these were driven, for safety, upon our Leake hills, and for a day or two, until the danger passed, the hills were alive with cattle.
At this time two or three young men of the village went to Derby—whether to join the Prince, or as sightseers, was not known—and did not return to the village.
The mention of this as a parish clerk’s story must be the excuse for reproducing the following from The Gentlemen's Magazine, for 1746, p. 421. An indignant person writes thus:—“Nothing of late years has been more abused by the caprice of parish clerks than psalm singing, who are so apt to give out psalms adapted to their own taste that they seem to forget that they are in a Christian congregation. In my parish Church for several months past we have sung hardly anything else but faggots, fire, flame, gibbets, axes, hammers, and all the curses in David’s Psalms. The clerk first invokes the congregation to praise God, and then imposes upon them David’s curses.”
If, as the writer suggests, this spirit was common among parish clerks, the story which is given above may deserve credit, the more so that Joseph Burton’s grandfather was probably the clerk at the time of the Young Pretender’s invasion. Throsby speaks of this clerk as a venerable man of about four score years at the time of his. visit, which may be put in the year 1793. He would consequently be forty-two years of age in 1745.
(1) Page 57.
(2)
The Garrison of Ashby-de-la-Zouch throughout the war was under the Command of Col. Sir George Parkyns, of Bunney. (See tombstone in the Chancel of Bunney Church).
(3) b. 1663 d. 1741.
(4)Vide the Bunney Monument.
(5) It is possible that this sign may point back to the de Ferrers’ ownership of land at East Leake. This family adopted six horse shoes as their armorial bearings, perhaps, as some think, because Henry de Ferrers was superintendent of the horse- armourers and farriers in the army of the Conqueror.