This year's programme of WHO lectures
Local history articles
early C17th Wymeswold constable's accounts
Wymeswold census returns 1841 to 1901
Wymeswold parish registers 1560 onwards
Wymeswold marriage registers 1560 to 1916
Wymeswold Village Design Statement 2002
WHO publications available as free PDFs
Wymeswold fieldwalking report 1993
In addition the WHO has digitised versions of:
- George Farnham's unpublished MS of notes about Wymeswold medieval history (akin to a 1920s update of Nichols)
- Enclosure Award and later maps plus assorted terriers held in the archive of Trinity College Cambridge
- Marshall Brown's pharmaceutical journal 1869
- Wymeswold school log books 1875–1982
- Wymeswold Parochial Charities minutes 1880–1930
- photographs taken by Philip Brown between 1890s and 1930s
- Sidney Pell Potter's A History of Wymeswold 1915
- Lily Brown's diary 1916
- Church Council Minute Book for St Mary's, Wymeswold 1932–1955
- WI survey of Wymeswold gravestones (St Mary's; Baptist chapel; Methodist chapel; 'The Quakers') 1981–2
- Rempstone Steam Fair programme 1983
Older news from the WHO
A rambler's view of Wymeswold
summary by David Keene
In October 1880 a reporter for the Leicester Chronicle who wrote under the pseudonym of 'Rambler', set off from Loughborough station for a walk to Wymeswold. He was in the habit of taking the train from Leicester to see and write an occasional article on a Leicestershire village. The walk to the village was described in flowery language with fulsome praise with expectations of a well-built village but this changed abruptly at the start of 'Little London'.
-
'A more primitive collection of cottages than that which here first attracts attention could hardly be conceived. The architecture is of the most rudimentary character. Some seem to have been dropped into their places utterly regardless of any general plan in short almost as if they had fallen in a thunderstorm and there been allowed to remain'.
The rest of the village was given more sympathetic attention at length with a few lines on many people and places and possibly not all correct.
I have not been able to confirm any record of a Mr Clark 'late of a Wymeswold beer house' alleged by Rambler to become MP for the district and Lord Mayor of London.
Read the full article as a PDF here.
Colour Sergeant George Calladine, 19th Foot
David Keene
Re-enactors dressed as the 19th Foot Regiment (1850s uniform)
Thomas Calladine, a gardener from Melbourne, and his wife Millicent moved to Wymeswold in the early 1780s with two of their sons Robert and William. George was born in 1793 and baptised at St Mary's. When Thomas died in 1798 Millicent took the family back to Melbourne.
When 12 or 13 years old George was sent to Wymeswold to work for 'farmer Limbert' (probably John Limbert, baptised at St Mary's in 1792) until another older brother, John, living at Old Radford found him an opening as an apprentice silk stockinger at New Radford with a Mr Harrington. George's apprenticeship started in 1805 and he was soon able to earn more than his twelve shillings a week pay at the lucrative silk trade. In spite of this he ran away in 1808. His bid for freedom did not last and in 1809 his master took him back. During his apprenticeship he benefitted from 'instruction' from one of his companions, an educated journeyman who taught him how to read and write.
In that same year, 1809, a review of Nottinghamshire troops was held to celebrate the fifteenth year of George III's reign during the time of the Napoleonic wars. The martial display impressed George and stirred his need for adventure. Both his older brothers, William and Robert, were then in the Derbyshire Militia and in 1810 George paid his master £4.10s to be released from his indenture and joined the militia at Chelmsford. His brother Robert, who was a serjeant, took George in hand, got him posted to the same company, made sure he knew his duties and much to George's consternation, took charge of his bounty and pay to make sure he did not squander it. George got it back later when his regiment was posted to Hythe and Winchelsea to guard the Military Canal.
The opportunity to join a line regiment with the attractions of a bounty, overseas travel and escape from his guardian brothers was irresistible and in May 1812 George was sworn in for seven years into the 19th Regiment of Foot (later the 1st Battalion, The Green Howards). On 4th June 1814 the regiment set sail from Spithead off Portsmouth on HMS Arniston with an armada of ships bound for Capetown and Ceylon. It was a long and often stormy voyage with a stay of several months at Capetown to avoid clashing with a large Dutch flotilla before arriving at Colombo in January the following year. The regiment stayed in Ceylon for five years and were involved in much fighting to depose the king of Kandy and to suppress rebels, returning to England in 1820.
In the years that followed the regiment was posted alternatively to many parts of England and Ireland all of which required long marches in all weathers. George was picked out for promotion several times so progressed to lance corporal, corporal, paymaster sergeant and finally to full regimental colour sergeant. While stationed at Weedon, the central depot for arms in England, he saw the woman who was to become his wife. They were married on the 14th June 1821. George never referred to her by her Christian name (Ann) but simply as 'my wife'.
By 1839 George also held the position of acting sergeant major at the Cork depot but was now so disabled with rheumatoid arthritis in his knees that he was given invalid status and travelled to Kilmainham to be discharged after 27 years service with a pension of 2 shillings and 1½ pence per day.
Now Mr and Mrs Calladine and their son, also called George, had one more arduous five or six day journey by night ferry to Liverpool, train to Manchester, barge to Whaley Bridge, then the High Peak railway, powered alternately by horse and by stationary engines and some difficult walking to Cromford where they got the coach to Derby to be met by his brother Robert.
They settled at Derby and for fifteen months George was Master of the All Saints Workhouse before he became a collector of the Poor Rates for Derby. During all his army life George kept a detailed diary of his experiences and thoughts which he probably rewrote when retired. This manuscript lay undisturbed in the regimental records until 1922 when Major M.L. Ferrar had it published.
During his army career George and his wife had known many times of poor health and great hardship. His regiment was constantly marching in all seasons and weathers and his wife was usually with the baggage train. The cost in health and infant mortality was high. Of the ten children born by Ann while in service only George survived. Another child, Thomas, was born in 1838 at Derby. Ann's health was not good and she died aged forty in 1846. George died in 1876 aged 83 years.
This article was abstracted from:
- The Diary of Colour-Sergeant George Calladine, 19th Foot 1793–1837, ed. by Major M.L. Ferrar. ["1793 – 1837" is incorrect. George Calladine was born in 1793, joined the 19th Foot in 1812 and was discharged in 1839. Following the dates in his diary is difficult.]
- The Strangers Gaze. Travels in County Clare 1534–1950. Edited by Brian O'Dalaigh.
Holworthy inquest 1851
Joan Shaw has donated to the WHO archive a folder of notes relating to the death of two children, Frederick and Elizabeth Holworthy, in 1850 and 1851. The father was R.J. Holworthy and the family lived in Wymeswold.
A newspaper account provides 'graphic' details of a postmortem which was held in the Bull's Head, Wymeswold, later Collington's butcher shop. The deaths were attributed to natural causes, although there remained a doubt that 'they were occasioned by improper medicines, innocently administered.'
Joan's notes attempt to identify R.J. Holworthy from trade directories and other records. An R.J. Holworthy of Wymeswold was made insolvent in 1849 and is presumably the same person. Robert James Holworthy married Jane Mee at St Margaret's in Leicester on 1st March 1852 and gave his occupation as 'builder'.
Notes from church registers reveal a Holworthy family resident in East Leake from the mid-18th century, with occasional additional register entries for Rempstone and Wymeswold. These suggests a John Holworthy was a 'druggist' around 1850; he may have been R.J. Holworth's father. However the inquest mostly concerned drugs taken by the children supplied by B.W. Brown of Wymeswold. Included in the photocopies is an advertisment in the Leicester Mercury of 9th January 1841 for 'Holworthy's Imperial Anodyne Ointment' which will produce 'expeditious relief' of a remarkably long list of ailments.
If anyone wants to delve further then I will scan these notes and make them available. Please email bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk
Walton school children 1904 to 1908
Three photographs were passed to Louise Walton by Pete Towle, a farmer in Walton on the Wolds. His uncle, Leslie Towle, is one of the children. The photographs were digitised and restored by Martin Thompson. Thanks to everyone for their assistance.The three photographs are for the years 1904–6; 1906–7 and 1907–8.
Click on each photograph for a higher-resolution version.
Wymeswold children's Christmas party circa 1937
David Smith, son of Ellen 'Nell' Smith, kindly sent a scan of a photograph of Wymeswold children at a Christmas party in the Memorial Hall. With the help of the late Bill Wooton David identified nearly everyone present. David thinks he was too young to attend, although his older brother, Sidney, is in the photo.
Thanks to John Harrison (whose older brother George was also there) for help with dates of birth we think the photo was taken December 1937. But it could be a year either side.
Click here for a higher resolution version of the photograph.
Click here for most of the names.
Click here for the names written sideways.
Click on the images to enlarge.
Dedication of the war memorial window
in St Mary's Wymeswold, May 1922
Joan Shaw and colleagues in the Loughborough Local Studies Collection at Granby Street Library spotted this account in the Loughborough Echo of 26th May 1922.
The full text is here. Click on the image to enlarge.
Goodbye Belvoir Angels. Hello Soul Effigies.
A common motif on Charnwood slate gravestones from the early seventeenth century is known as a 'Belvoir angel'. This name is quite recent. And doubly misleading as the motif is found outside the Vale of Belvoir and when carved was not thought to depict an angel. Find out more in this new video here
Cleft from the Hills
Alex Hando
The 'Great Pit' in Swithland Woods. (Photo by John Darch.)
Alex Hando's extended essay Cleft from the Hills explains why the slate industry of Blaenau Ffestiniog was more successful than the Charnwood Forest quarries.
This essay is an excellent 'companion' to David Lea's detailed study of Swithland Slate headstones and Bob Trubshaw's investigations of Charnwood slate gravestones in Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire as evidence of 'return loads' along trade routes. See www.hoap.co.uk/barrowby/charnwood_slates.htm and his associated YouTube video.
Three Queens, Three Kings and the Durham Ox
Before railways drovers' routes allowed livestock to be transported the length and breadth of Britain. The drovers needed inns along these routes. Surprisingly several such inns straddling Leicestershire and Lincolnshire are 14 miles apart. One of them is the Durham Ox at Six Hills.
Victoria Annie Pallet (née Meadows)
These two Burton photographs were advertised on eBay a few months back. They intrigued me because when the first one was taken the cottage was obviously one of Burton's several shops, but the name over the door – A. Pallett – didn't ring any bells. By the time of the second picture it seems A. Pallett had ceased trading, but the same lady is standing at the front door and is presumably is still living there.
The pictures appear to have been taken during the early years of the twentieth century. The garden walls have the soft rounded copings that were typical of the Burton Hall Estate properties and when the estate was sold in 1920 the cottage was let to Mrs Pallett at a rent of £4.10s.d. a year.
The cottage is one of four on the south side of Melton Road. Today it is no. 59.
We believe the lady is Victoria Annie Pallett and the name above the door is that of her husband who was Archie (sometimes written Archer) Pallett.
Archie Pallett was a shoe-finisher and the son of a Leicester plumber. He and Victoria met while she was in service in Leicester. Victoria was Victoria Annie Meadows and she was born at Market Overton in Rutland. Her parents, Albert and Anne, were both from Langham. For many years Albert's job as an agricultural labourer resulted in the family moving from place to place – Cosby, Market Overton, Langham, Cropston, New Parks – but in 1900 Albert came to Park Farm on the Burton Wolds as bailiff – we assume for the Burton Hall Estate.
By 1940 Archie and Victoria had left the Burton area, but Albert Meadows was living and working in the market gardens at Cotes with Victoria's sister Hilda and her husband George Brooks. George had been Victoria's near neighbour on Melton Road.
Joan Shaw
Wymeswold Mother's Union teapot
There is always something lurking at the back of a cupboard that one has forgotten about, or in this case at the bottom of the church chest. When WHO member Richard Bimson and his fellow churchwarden, Mike Henshaw, undertook their annual inspection of church property this year at St Mary's, they dug a little deeper into the bottom of the chest beyond the piles of candles and nativity figures. This unearthed a number of portraits of former incumbents (now displayed temporarily at the back of St Mary's church), but excitingly a battered cardboard box with the words "Wymeswold Mothers Union Teapot and Minutes". Alas, the minutes were not there, but the fine teapot was. As with all good artefacts, a former custodian had stuffed some information into the teapot relating to its history.
This information elicits the fact that it is a nineteenth century North Staffordshire pot in red clay, known in the trade as jetware, with slip decoration. It is described as a good example of "one of the cheapest forms of decorated teapot that could be obtained". When it was viewed by an antique dealer in the 1990s he suggested that it was probably actually made in the Measham Ware Pottery at Church Gresley. Despite its being only a modest example of its type, it is nevertheless an interesting Wymeswold artefact.
The inscription reads:
-
A PRESENT TO Z YATES
WHYNESWORLD
1882
However no Yates are shown in either the 1881 or 1891 censuses.
Class of '67
A former Wymeswold resident, Christine Miles Holland, kindly sent a scan of a Wymeswold school photo taken about 1967. And she can remember everyone's name:-
Back row: Christine Bourne, Caroline Miles, Jeremy McKay, Stephen Machin, Irene Hassel, Margaret Harrison
Third row: Stephen Langley, Mark Taylor, John Mills, John Shaw, Julie Oldham, Richard Andrew Herrick, Roger Mills
Second row: David Wilkinson, Philip Knox, John Carr, Marcus Smith(Nell Smith's grandson), Andrew Cummings, John Wood (baker's son), Paul Barratt, Susan Rogers
Front row: Vivian Mills, Vicky Webster, Nicola Williams, Mr D.C.G. Williams, Greta Wilson, Wendy Harris, Susan Welton, Alison Lamb
Names in bold born 1957–8; other names born 1956–7.
Wysall Lane windmills enigma
Hand-coloured lantern slide by Philip Brown thought to show
the windmill on Wysall Lane circa 1900.
Joan Hubbard, who has lived in Mill Cottage on Wysall Lane, Wymeswold, since 1981 kindly allowed the deeds of her property to be digitised. These clearly state that a windmill once stood on the west side of the lane, roughly where the cottage is.
Two maps prepared around the time of the Enclosure Award in 1758 show two mills, one to the west and one to the east of Wysall Lane. By 1777 only the eastern one still stood.
More details in this PDF.
and more…
When the windmill shown above was demolished in the 1950s one of the millstones was used to cap a well. Thanks to Paul Howitt for the photograph (taken March 2022) and to the landowner for permission to include on this web site.