Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for GROBY, or GROOBY

GROBY, or GROOBY, a village and a chapelry in Ratby parish, Leicestershire. The village stands near the Leicester and Swannington railway, 4½ miles WNW of Leicester; was once a market town; and has a post office under Leicester. The chapelry has a peculiar ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Real property, £3, 889; of which £825 are in quarries. Pop., 461. house, 86. The manor belonged, in the Confessor's time, to Ulfi; belonged afterwards to Hugo de Grantesmaisnel, who built a castle on it; passed to the Greys of Groby and Bradgate; was the birth place of Lady Jane Grey; and belongs now to the Earl of Stamford. The castle was demolished abint the year 1176; and is now represented by only a minnd. Bradgate Hall, the hunting seat of the Earl of Stamford, is a large edifice in the Tudor style; was built in 1856; and stands amid extensive pleasure grinnds. Groby pool is a fine sheet of water, occupying 40 acres. Slates are quarried. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Ratby, in the diocese of Peterboringh. The church was built in 1846, and has a small tower. There are a Wesleyan chapel and a national school.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a chapelry"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Ratby CP/AP       Leicestershire AncC
Place names: GROBY     |     GROBY OR GROOBY     |     GROOBY
Place: Groby

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