Packington

For other places with the same name, see Packington (disambiguation).

Packington
The village ex Methodist Church - Now a private house
Packington Location within Leicestershire
Population	734 (2011)
District	North West Leicestershire
Shire county	Leicestershire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Postcode district	LE65
Dialling code	01530
Police	Leicestershire
Fire	Leicestershire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	North West Leicestershire

Packington is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire. It is situated close to the A42 road and the towns of Ashby de la Zouch and Measham. The population of Packington according to the 2001 UK census is 738, reducing slightly to 734 at the 2011 census. Nearby villages include Normanton le Heath and Heather.

Packington has a public house called the 'Bull and Lion' (reputedly the only one in Britain) and a local shop called 'Daybreak Services'. It is part of the National Forest and the Gilwiskaw brook runs through the village.

History

Village lock up

Origins

Packington's origins are unknown. Its placename suggests an Anglo-Saxon settlement, possibly established by followers of a leader named Pacca or similar. The settlement may already have been in place in the heyday of the Kingdom of Mercia under Aethelbald and Offa during the eighth century. However, this is merely speculative.

Middle Ages

The first known report of Packington occurs in 1043. In this year Leofric, Earl of Mercia, endowed St. Mary's Abbey, Coventry, with the manor of Packington (and also other settlements in what is now Leicestershire). The Abbey (later Priory) retained it up to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539-40. Domesday Book (1086) confirms the Abbey's holding of eight and a half carrucates (one carrucate being the amount of land which one team of oxen could plough in a season) and reports that "in demesne is one plough; and three villeins with a priest and one bordar and five sokemen have three ploughs. There is a mill rendering 12 pence and three acres of meadow. It is worth 20 shillings." It is unclear whether there was a church in Packington when Domesday Book was recorded, though mention of a priest suggests the possibility. The oldest parts of the present Holy Rood Church date from the reign of King John (1199-1216). In 1257, St. Mary's Abbey was granted a licence by King Henry lll to hold a market in Packington.

Early modern times'

Following the dissolution, Packington passed into the hands of the Duke of Suffolk, who was subsequently executed for treason. In 1563 it was granted to the Earl of Huntington, head of the Hastings family, who then resided at nearby Ashby Castle. Links with the family continued for over 350 years. Successive Earls held advowson regarding the vicars of Packington for most of this period. During the English Civil War the vicar, Thomas Pestell, was ejected from the church by Parliamentary troops and replaced by a Mr. Pegg. This appears to have been unpopular with the villagers and following the restoration of King Charles Rev. Pestell was himself restored in 1662, continuing in office until his death in 1690. In the 1730's Theophilus, the then Earl, commissioned a map of his estates, which was produced in 1735. Packington as shown on the map has the same main routes as the present-day village. The map gives field names for the surrounding area, much of which belonged to the Hastings estate. It also shows holdings of independent landowners of the time. Most of the manor was dedicated to farming, although one area along the road to Normanton, known as Coalpit Heath, was the scene of sporadic coal production and had been since at least the sixteenth century. In 1790 Francis, tenth Earl of Huntingdon, gave the manor of Packington to his illegitimate son Charles, who became General Sir Charles Hastings after military service in the Napoleonic Wars. Sir Charles married Parnell Abney, heiress to the Abney family of nearby Willesley Hall, and took up residence there. On his death in 1823, his son Sir Charles Abney Hastings succeeded. He established the first school in Packington (now called "Old School House") and built the bridges over the Gilwiskaw Brook. The alliance of the Hastings and Abney families is commemorated in the name of Packington's village inn: The Bull and Lion, formerly known as the Bull's Head and Lion, reflects heraldic symbols of both families. From around 1750, Baptists established a base in Packington. In 1761 they were loaned a barn in Mill Street for services and from 1799 were led by Rev. Joseph Goadby who arranged the building of a chapel which opened in 1832. Methodists also established a presence with a chapel opening just off High Street in the 1830's. Later in the nineteenth century the manor passed to Charles Frederick Abney Hastings who married Edith, holder of a Scottish peerage as Countess of Loudoun. Following her death in 1874 her son became Earl, continuing to live at Willesley Hall. Working closely with the vicar, Rev. Arthur Mammatt, the Earl opened a new primary school in 1893, as the original one was too small to cater for growing numbers, on the site of today's school. From early times some parts of Packington (both in the core of the village and in outlying fields) were in Derbyshire although most of the village belonged to Leicestershire. In the 1851 census, for example, 75 households were in Leicestershgire and 54 in Derbyshire. The origins of this are obscure: it came to an end in 1884 when an Act of Parliament reformed local government; sine then all of Packington has been in Leicestershire.

The Packington Blind Horse

The foundation stallion for the Shire horse breed is generally recognized as the Packington Blind Horse who stood at stud in the village between 1755 and 1770.

References

• Nichols, John (1795-1815) History and Antiquities of Leicestershire, Vol. III, pg. 927.
• Mathews, A. G. (1948) Walker Revised
• Packington Village History Group website www.pvhg.uk

External links

Media related to Packington at Wikimedia Commons