Records at St Mary's go back to 1581, and are now kept in the Leicestershire Record Office, Wigston Magna. Principally a register 'of all the Christenings Weddings and Burialls in the Parishe of Broughton Astley', the entries record the lives of the people served by St Mary's. Typical of one of the earliest records is an entry in 1589:
Willm the Sonne of a Stranger was baptized the 6th of March and buried the 7th day of the same Month.
From 1636, occupations begin to be recorded alongside the names, which is of interest to a social historian. Early entries chiefly suggest agricultural employment, but by the early 19th century, records indicate that many residents of Broughton Astley were employed as stocking makers or shoe makers. The first stocking frame came to the village in 1750 and by 1845 there were 1100 frames making us the third largest centre in the country, with many additional workers commuting from surrounding villages. More divergent forms of employment are recorded at about the time of the arrival of the railway to Broughton Astley in 1840, as parishioners were able to move further afield to work. The railway was closed in 1962.
Dark deeds in the parish are occasionally referred to. One entry records that: Ann Billson murdered by Abraham Billson her husband by Inquest held this 9th Dec. 1824. In the margin, by this entry, it is noted: Abm Billson executed for this murder Spring Assizes 1825 at Leicester. Other tragic deaths are sometimes reported: in 1894, Ernest Garner was 'killed by a fall from a cart'. |
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In the past, the area around the church was subject to flooding. On 24th May, 1925, the Rector, the Reverend BW Machin wrote:
Floods made entrance to church impossible for congregation. No service at 10.30 or 2.30.
Within the 'Bull's Head' Public House is an old photograph showing one of these floods with Station Road completely flooded.
Forty years previously, in his Report to the Parishioners of Broughton Astley, the then Rector, the Reverend GD Armitage, notes that on 16th April 1885:
Confirmation held the first time for 32 years, and a flood as there had been 32 years previously.
Just how serious the floods could be are indicated in a short report - now almost illegible in part - at the back of one set of early Parish Records, which says that in September 1735:
Being Sunday there was a great floude about eleven a clock at night [the worst?] for many years the water came a yard or two into the stable-yard of the Parsonage House and was over the door sill by the door by the stables that goes into the Court yard by the House.
Parish Records also confirm Broughton Astley's links to the family of
Lady Jane Grey. In 1611, the records note:
Sr John Grey Knight Sonne & Heir to the Lord Grey Baron of Grooby being of the age of
[...] was buried in the Chappell of this Church the seventh day of October & his Body
lyeth uppon the North syde of the Lady Anne Gray his mother who was five years and upwards
buried in the same place or Chappell.
The records confirm that Lady Anne Gray was buried in the north chapel of the church on 28th June 1605 (Nichols confuses the dates in his account).
Lady Anne Gray was married to Henry, 1st Lord Grooby, and who was cousin to Lady Jane Grey. Henry's son John, buried in St Mary's Church, would therefore have been Lady Jane Grey's cousin once removed!
The Estley family were Lords of the Manor from 1220 to 1402 when it passed by marriage to the Greys of Grooby, Earls of Stafford, one of whom assembled the Leicester Militia at Broughton in June 1642 prior to the Civil War. The Greys sold their estate in 1679 to Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Chancellor to William III ( see also Communion Plate), and his great grandson sold the land in parcels in 1769. the Reverend John Liptrott, Rector of St Mary's (1727 - 1778) purchased the Broughton Manor bringing to an end 367 years of absent landlords.
Following are the records for Receipts and Payments for the years ending Easter 1895 and 1896 (click on images to enlarge)
