Appleby Magna: Guide, Hotels, Map & Photos
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GBP 49 - 99 Aspect Hotel Tamworth
 Just off the M42 at Junction 11, this modern, friendly Aspect hotel has a bistro-style restaurant, free Wi-Fi and ample free parking. Drayton Manor is… More | ||||||
Appleby Magna: Guide
Appleby Magna is a village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The parish of Appleby Magna actually includes the village of Appleby Parva as well as Appleby Magna. The original name Aeppel-by refers to apple trees, the by suggesting a Danish settlement as the town lies on the edge of the ancient boundary between Mercia and the Danelaw. Mention of a ‘spellow’ field in a fifteenth-century manorial land terrier points to an earlier Saxon moot site within the parish. Before re-alignment of the county boundaries in 1897, the parish was spread across two counties, the famous antiquarian William Burton observing in 1622 that it was “upon the verie edge of the countie of Derby, with which it is so intermingled that the houses... cannot be distinguished which be of eyther shire”. Its most prominent medieval survival is the moated manor house next to the church, the ancient home of the Applebys. In Elizabethan times there was a rectory opposite St. Michael’s church , a large tithe barn alongside the eastern wall of the churchyard and two water mills - one near the moat house where there are traces of a sluiceway, the other, rebuilt in 1620, at Mease-meadow, on the Measham boundary.
There are some interesting earthworks near the church including defensive banks and ditches. Brick and rubble foundations mark the site of the 17th century Dormer's Hall and numerous marl pits in an adjacent enclosure reveal attempts to improve the heavy clay soils. The principal landholders from around 1600 were the trustees for the Dixie Grammar School at Market Bosworth, and the Moores who purchased the manor of Little Abbey around 1600.
This "Travel Guide" section is drawn from the Wikipedia article "Appleby Magna". We hope you will edit and improve it. It is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
The parish was enclosed in 1771 by Parliamentary Agreement after a series of piecemeal exchanges.
Appleby's nineteenth century inhabitants were engaged in framework knitting and stocking manufacturing. The 1801 national census records a total population of 935, evenly divided between the two counties.
References
John Nichols, Antiquities of Leicestershire, Vol. IV, pp. 426-442.
William Burton, The Description of Leicestershire, (1622)
B.H. Cox, ‘Leicestershire Moot Sites, the Place Name Evidence’, Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 47 (1971-2), p. 20 External link