BRIEF HISTORY OF DESFORD

Written Record

The earliest written record of Deresford or Diresford is in the Domesday Book of 1086, but the name is older and means Deor’s Ford, rather than Deer’s Ford suggesting an Anglo Saxton origin.

Occupation

The earliest signs of occupation are the remains of two Romano-British kilns found on the demolition site of the The Manor House in Main Street in 1959, but the oldest surviving building, is the Parish Church of St. Martin, largely 13th. century, although the font is Norman. The oldest domestic building is in Main Street which is of cruck beam construction, but other houses notably the Malthouse and the Old White Cottage in Newbold Road, and Old Manor Farm, Ivy House and part of the Old Forge in High Street date back from Tudor and Stuart times. A fine example of an 18th. century Georgian house is The Grange in Church Lane, and Manor Farm in High Street dates from the same period.

Conservation Area

The old part of the village was designated a Conservation Area by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council in 1981

Medieval - Present Day

In the medieval period the Manor House of Desford belonged to the Earls of Leicester, who in the 14th. century became also Dukes of Lancaster, and in 1399 were united with the Crown. The present Queen, as result, is the Patron of St. Martin’s Church. The other great influence on the village during these times was the proximity of Leicester Forest, a Royal Hunting Forrest, in which the villages had important rights of common until it was disafforested in 1628.

The great majority of villagers were engaged in agriculture until 1700, farming arable strips in the four Open Fields of the Parish, and pasturing their animals on low lying meadows by streams. 1n 1760, however, by private Act of Parliament, the 1000 acres of open fields were Enclosed, and new fields were hedged and farmed separately.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution the cottage industry of stocking or framework knitting developed in the village, the first reference being in 1704, and this continued well into the 19th century, with over a hundred framework knitters being recorded in the Census of 1851. The 19th century was the time when the coal mining became a large scale industry in west Leicestershire, and in 1875 an unsuccessful attempt because of flooding was made to sink a coal mine in the Parish at Lindridge. In the 20th century the nearest coal mine two miles away employed many Desford people until 1984.

In 1866 a Chapel was built at the top of Chapel Lane, subsequently enlarged and is now the Desford Free Church.

The railway came to Desford in 1832, part of the Leicester to Swannington Railway, built by Robert Stevenson and the third oldest line in the world. Originally constructed to bring coal to Leicester, it was also a passenger line until 1964 and Desford had its own station. The larger houses on Station Road were built for middle class commuters to Leicester.

Since the second World War the village has changed and grown . Local industry has provided employment both at Timken at Newtown Unthank and at the Caterpillar UK which was formerly a private aerodrome and then an RAF Training Centre during the War. The rise in population brought a new secondary school Bosworth Community College to the village and the old village schools in Main Street were replaced by a new County Primary School on Kirkby Road.