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Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
SOCIAL HISTORY
Social Character
Lutterworth in 1086 contained a broad mix of free and unfree tenants, with 12 sokemen, six villans,
seven bordars and, in the demesne, one female and two male slaves.1 Burgage tenure had been
created by 1279, when there were 25 burgesses (37 per cent of the recorded population), six free
tenants (9 per cent) and 36 villeins (54 per cent).2 Labour services had been commuted for cash by
1316,3 which is seen elsewhere in Leicestershire in the early 14th century.4 Mention of ‘ly Bonde
end’ in 1403 suggests there may have been a topographical and social distinction between the
agrarian tenants and those in the commercial part of the town.5 No plots were described as
burgages in 1509, when the main social distinction was between the sole chief messuage (owned by
Everard Feilding), 19 other messuages and c.79 cottages.6
Lutterworth’s lords probably rarely visited. Mainou the Breton, the lord in 1086, held 19 manors,
mostly in Buckinghamshire.7 The Verduns held extensive estates in England, Wales and Ireland.8
Theobald de Verdun I (d. 1309) served Edward I in the Welsh and Scottish wars, and also spent
substantial time in Ireland.9 His son and heir Theobald II (d. 1316) was appointed justiciar of Ireland
in 1313.10 The estates of the Ferrers and Grey families, successors to the Verduns, were based
around Groby and Bradgate.
Two people stood well above the remainder of the population in the early 14th century, in terms of
their wealth. The master of the hospital was assessed for 12s. tax in 1327 and 10s. in 1332, and
Theobald de Verdun’s widow, Lady Clare, was assessed for 10s. in 1327 and 20s. in 1332.11 The
higher assessment for Lady Clare in 1332 may reflect the release to her of the lordship of Usk,
forfeited in 1322, rather than any improvement in the value of her Lutterworth lands.12 Beneath
them was a band of moderately wealthy people, 20 assessed for between 1s. and 5s. tax in 1327,
and 16 people assessed for between 2s. and 6s. 8d. in 1332. Two names appear twice among the
highest rated taxpayers: William Poyntell, with assessments of 5s. in 1327 and 6s. 8d. in 1322, and
William Norreys at 4s. in 1327 and 6s. 8d. in 1332. Geoffrey Feilding appears in the 1332 list,
assessed at 3s. 4d., which was also the median value of the assessments.13
1
Domesday, 645.
2
Bodleian, Rawlinson MS B 350, p. 23; Nichols, History, IV, 247.
3
TNA, C 134/56/1.
4
VCH Leics. II, 173–4.
5
Lincs. Arch., Bishop’s Register 13, f. 58.
6
Warwicks. RO, CR 2017/E42; Goodacre, Transformation, 46, 59–60.
7
https://opendomesday.org/name/mainou-the-breton/ (accessed 14 May 2020).
8
M. Hagger, The Fortunes of a Norman Family: the de Verduns in England, Ireland and Wales, 1066–1216
(Dublin, 2001), 130, 135–7.
9
Hagger, The Fortunes, 98–115, 138, 235.
10
Hagger, The Fortunes, 117, 234.
11
TNA, E 179/133/1, m. 10d; E 179/133/2, m. 10d; W.G.D. Fletcher and F. Hopper, ‘The earliest Leicestershire
lay subsidy roll, 1327’, Assoc Arch. and Hist. Soc. Rpt and Papers, XIX (1887–8), 307.
12
ODNB, sv, Clare, Elizabeth de [Elizabeth de Burgh; known as lady of Clare] (1294/5–1360), magnate and
founder of Clare College, Cambridge (accessed 21 July 2020).
13
TNA, E 179/133/1, m. 10d; E 179/133/2, m. 10d; W.G.D. Fletcher and F. Hopper, ‘The earliest Leicestershire
lay subsidy roll, 1327’, Assoc Arch. and Hist. Soc. Rpt and Papers, XIX (1887–8), 307.
1
Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
The Feilding family had wide connections, including trading links with Coventry and London in the
14th and 15th centuries.14 In 1465, William Feilding and his kinsmen, Thomas and Richard Fielding,
brought an action against a London merchant, which related to a substantial transaction, as the
penal sum attached was £10,000.15 Sir Everard Feilding was in dispute with the Abbot of Combe
(Warws.) in 1512 over £200, which may relate to the abbey’s wool clip.16 Everard and his wife Jylis
were members of the guild at Knowle in 1510,17 and they both requested burial in the Blackfriars
church in Northampton.18
The Feildings grew in wealth and in social prominence in the town, and from the 15th century began
to play a part in county and in national life. William Feilding (d. 1471) served as a justice of the peace
for Leicestershire in the 1450s and served in the parliament of 1459 which attainted the Yorkist
lords.19 Their influence in Lutterworth was through the land and properties they owned including, in
1509, three of the town’s five inns, seven shops, ‘Westminster Hall’, the horse-mill and the ‘chief
messuage’. Everard Feilding was the second largest landowner in 1509,20 and one of the feoffees
appointed by Edmund Muryall in 1478 to hold the assets of the town guild.21
Basil Feilding and Everard Feilding junior were appointed feoffees to the town guild in 1517.22 The
trustees of the town lands in 1571 were Everard Feilding, Basil Feilding and Gabriel Poulteney (the
brother of Everard’s daughter-in-law).23 There are suggestions of tensions in the town in 1520, when
John Paybody left money for the highways and pavements of the town, if it could be paid
‘w[i]t[h]owt stryff’.24 The friction may have related to the degree of control exercised by the
Feildings. Sir William Feilding’s will set out in 1540 that there should be two keys to the box
containing the town’s money, and if his heirs had any concerns, the box was to be kept at Monks
Kirby.25 Feilding family involvement cannot be proved, but they may have been instrumental in
ensuring assets moved seamlessly from town guild to town estate before they had to be declared to
the Chantry Commissioners. The retention of these endowments has provided ongoing benefits to
all townspeople over the subsequent centuries.26
Sir Everard Feilding was one of a small group of very wealthy inhabitants in the late 15th and early
16th century. He was an active Merchant of the Staple in Calais, where he held at least £100 of stock
in 1515.27 John Reynolds (d. 1473), who has a brass memorial in the church, was also a Merchant of
the Staple.28 Robert Paver owned taxable goods valued at £143 6s. 8d. in 1524 and £140 in 1525,
14
TNA, CP 40/392, m. 7; Cal. Pat. 1367–70, 26, 229; TNA, CP 40/546, m. 123; C 241/275/37; CP 40/753, m.
185; TNA CP 40/1005B, m. 556; A. Watkins, ‘The town of Lutterworth in the later Middle Ages’, Trans.
LAHS, 92 (2018), 140–42.
15
TNA, C 241/249/27; C 241/254/161.
16
TNA, CP 40/1001, m. 7; Watkins, ‘The town of Lutterworth’, 141.
17
W.B. Bickley (ed.), The Register of the Guild of Knowle (Walsall, 1894), 192.
18
Warws. RO, CR 2017/F25; VCH Northants, II, 145.
19
E. Acheson, A Gentry Community: Leicestershire in the Fifteenth Century, c.1422–c.1485 (Cambridge, 1992),
105, 125–6, 132, 230–1.
20
Warws. RO, CR 2017/E42.
21
Warws. RO, CR 2017/D199.
22
Report on the Manuscripts of the late Reginald Rawdon Hastings of the Manor House, Ashby-de-la-Zouch
(Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1928), I, 102.
23
Rpt of Charity Commissioners (Parl. Papers 1839 [163], xv), p. 129.
24
ROLLR, Will register 1515-26, ff. 374–374v.
25
TNA, PROB 11/31/690.
26
Below, Local Government, Town Government.
27
TNA PROB 11/18/114.
28
Nichols, History, IV, 265.
2
Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
making him one of the wealthiest men in Leicestershire.29 He was also a freeman of Leicester.30 The
social networks of these men would have set them apart from others in the town. John Chaplyn may
have been less well connected socially, but was assessed on goods worth £50 in 1524, and his widow
Agnes was assessed in 1525 on goods worth £16.31 He was the lord’s bailiff,32 a position which would
have added to the influence he may have held by virtue of his wealth.
Lutterworth’s growing commercial community is reflected in the taxation of 1552, when the town’s
total taxable wealth of £231 was divided almost equally between those who derived their income
from agriculture, and those whose wealth was less directly related to the soil. Five people had
taxable assets worth £101: the farmers of the Spital (Richard Winfield) and Moorbarns (Edward
Ferrers), two yeomen and a wool-buyer. Seven others, comprising two mercers, a mercer’s widow, a
draper, an innkeeper, a butcher and a baker were taxed on assets of £102. There was one other
taxpayer, whose occupation is unknown, assessed at £28.33
The sale by the crown of leases in Lutterworth from 1560 attracted two wealthy pastoral farmers to
the parish: Peter Temple at Moorbarns from 1560, and Thomas Forren at the Spital from 1596.
Temple owned substantial enclosed land in Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire.34 Forren was a
large-scale pastoral farmer in Northamptonshire, and the main beneficiary of the contentious
enclosure of Cotesbach in 1607.35 In addition to Spital mills, Forren also held the common
bakehouse, the drapery, the shambles and a lease over the ‘bailiwick’ (which appears to have
stretched no further than Lutterworth itself), including the tolls of the markets and fairs, and
probably also the fees and perquisites of the manor courts.36
The influence of these landowners was tempered by a confidence within the wider community,
perhaps developing from their experiences of managing the interests of the town estate and its
predecessor guild, and the presence of a number of freeholders. A few individual residents had
purchased crown leases of their houses and open field lands during Elizabeth’s reign,37 and some
became freeholders as part of the purchase of the manor by Basil Feilding in 1629.38 They were
prepared to defend the value of their investment. In 1627, the townspeople successfully petitioned
for a full examination by the Lord Chief Justice of why Sir Thomas Temple paid no rates for
Moorbarns,39 and an agreement was reached that the Temples, or their tenants, should pay one
quarter of the sum paid by the parish.40 When corn was in short supply in 1630, it appears to have
been the pressure of local opinion which resulted in Sir Thomas Temple ploughing part of
Moorbarns,41 despite his son Sir Peter Temple having obtained a court order against his father to
prevent this.42 By 1673, the town had also obtained annual payments towards poor relief from the
29
TNA, E179/133/122, rot. 9d; E179/133/121, rot. 2; Goodacre, Transformation, 155.
30
H. Hartopp (ed.), Register of the Freemen of Leicester 1196–1170 (Leicester, 1927), 61.
31
TNA, E179/133/122, rot. 9d; E179/133/121, rot. 2; Goodacre, Transformation, 155.
32
Warws. RO, CR 2017/D199.
33
TNA, E 179/134/176; Goodacre, Transformation, 151.
34
Above, Landownership.
35
Goodacre, Transformation, 105; Parker, ‘The agrarian revolution at Cotesbach, 1501–1612’ Trans. LAHS, 24
(1948), 41, 50, 57–76.
36
TNA, PROB 11/122/523; LR 2/255, f. 161.
37
TNA. LR 2/255.
38
Above, Landownership, Lutterworth Manor from 1628.
39
E.F. Gay, ‘The rise of an English country family: Peter and John Temple, to 1603’, Huntington Library
Quarterly, 1:4 (1938), 377; E.F. Gay, ‘The Temples of Stowe and their debts: Sir Thomas Temple and Sir Peter
Temple, 1603–1653’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 2 (1939), 430.
40
ROLLR, DE 2559/18, f. 46v; QS 6/1/2/1, f. 157r; Goodacre, The Transformation, 70.
41
Thirsk (ed.), The Agrarian History, 821.
42
Gay, ‘The Temples’, 412–6; O’Day, An Elite Family, 381–94.
3Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
owners of land in neighbouring depopulated parishes: £2 14s. from Misterton and Poultney, £2 10s.
from Cotesbach, £2 from Westrill and Starmore, £1 10s. from Bittesby and £1 from Cotes de Val.43
There would have been tensions in the town during the Civil War. William Feilding, 1st earl of
Denbigh, was a Royalist, who died in April 1643 from injuries sustained supporting Price Rupert’s
assault on Birmingham.44 His son and heir Basil fought for parliament, and was nominated
commander-in-chief of the associated counties of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and
Worcestershire in June 1643.45 Lutterworth’s churchwardens gave £2 to ‘Prince Rupert’s trumpeters’
on an unrecorded date between May and November 1643, perhaps when the king’s army moved
from Daventry to Ashby in July, probably passing along Watling Street.46 In 1658, the constables paid
8s. for ‘Ribben which was given to those w[hi]ch proclaimed the Lord Richard protector’, wording
which suggests some chose not to mark the occasion.47
The growth of Lutterworth’s population between c.1590 and 1670, following migration from
neighbouring parishes being enclosed, would have had a major influence on the character of the
town. It is difficult to assess the degree of poverty in Lutterworth, but the occupiers of 33 of the 117
homes identified in 1607 (28 per cent) had no rights in the open fields. A further seven households
could only graze one beast, and 44 households could graze one cow and one horse (total 44 per
cent). Some of these may have been skilled craftsmen with no need for land, but potentially up to 72
per cent of the population may have lived at no more than bare subsistence level.48 In 1670, the
occupiers of 83 of Lutterworth’s 225 houses (37 per cent) were too poor to pay the hearth tax.49 The
median number of hearths in 1664 was just two.50
The main beneficiaries in this period were the bakers and innkeepers, as the needs of the larger
population exceeded the manor’s capacity to mill corn and bake bread.51 The range of stock held by
the town’s mercers expanded in this period, reflecting an increase in international trade, a carrier
service between Lutterworth and London, and the wealth of landowners and others in Lutterworth
and local villages who wanted to buy fashionable cloths and trimmings, tobacco and imported
groceries.52 The contents of houses become more varied. Anthony Gore, who died in 1689, owned a
harpsichord and an organ.53
The arrival of regular coach services from the 1780s increased the attractiveness of Lutterworth to
the ‘middling classes’ and landowners as a place to live. Spacious plots for houses were available on
Woodmarket, and the social life included occasional horse races, balls, assemblies and musical
entertainment. Private schools provided lessons in both commercial and cultural subjects, including
accounting, music and languages. Lutterworth’s charity schools ensured potential servants or
apprentices had received a basic education, and the lack of alternative factory work would have kept
43
ROLLR, DE 2559/35; DE 2559/99; Goodacre, Transformation, 70.
44
ODNB, s.v. Feilding, William, first earl of Denbigh (c.1587–1643), naval officer and courtier (accessed 7
Dec. 2018).
45
ODNB, s.v. Feilding, Basil, second earl of Denbigh (c.1608–1675), parliamentarian army officer and
politician (accessed 7 Dec. 2018).
46
ROLLR, DE 2559/18.
47
ROLLR, DE 2559/24.
48
TNA, LR 2/255.
49
TNA, E 179/240/279; VCH Leics. III, 172.
50
TNA, E 179/251/4, pt 7, f. 180.
51
Above, Economic History, Mills.
52
Above, Economic History, Services; Lutterworth Parish, Communication.
53
ROLLR, PR/I/92/45.
4Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
wages low. In 1794, the town could support three lawyers and three medical men.54 By 1846, there
were three lawyers, five medical practitioners, including two with an MD qualification, one
commercial and one savings bank and five places of worship.55 By the late 19th and early 20th
century, town meetings which were once chaired by the earls of Denbigh or the rectors,56 were
being led by professional men such as Marston Buszard QC and Lupton Topham Topham.57 Buszard
(d. 1921) was the grandson of Lutterworth banker Marston Buszard (d. 1824) and son of Lutterworth
physician Marston Buszard M.D. (d. 1879).58 Topham, also a barrister, lived at Lutterworth House
between 1902 and 1920, and also owned a landed estate in the North Riding of Yorkshire.59
Civic pride in what was becoming a ‘middle-class’ town manifested itself in a number of ways,
including the employment of Joseph Hansom to provide a town hall, and the approaches made to
top architects to restore the church in the 1860s, despite the town’s economy being in decline.60 This
extended to a strong desire to promote the town’s connection with Wyclif.
Stories had circulated about Wyclif since at least 1531.61 A spring of healing water was said to flow
from the point where Wyclif’s bones were burnt, or fell, or were trampled on, or where a man
running with one of his bones fell and died.62 Another legend held that the river would never flow
through an arch under the bridge where Wyclif’s ashes were cast into the water.63 By the late 18th
century, visitors to the church were shown ‘Wyclif’s pulpit’, ‘his table’, ‘his chair’, ‘his candlestick’
and part of ‘his vestment’.64 These attributions were comprehensively discredited in 1861,65 but the
claims persisted, and a new ‘link’ to Wyclif’s life was seized when the wall paintings were discovered
in 1867–9.66 Attempts were made in the 1880s and 1890s to raise money to build a museum to
display the various portable items, but the money could not be raised.67 Instead, and in addition to
the mural monument in the church, a granite memorial column was erected on a prominent site,
which also marked Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee (Figure 9). Its claims that Wyclif was ‘the
54
Universal Directory (1794), 605.
55
W. White, Hist. Gaz. and Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (Sheffield, 1846), 404, 408, 410.
56
Leic. Jnl., 25 Jan. 1861 (earl, railway); Lutterworth Museum, Resolutions of Meeting held in 1835 (rector,
Town Hall).
57
Northampton Mercury, 8 Jan. 1881 (Buzzard, opening of grammar school); Leic. Chron., 13 Sept. 1890
(Buszard, railway); Leic. Daily Post, 18 Sept. 1920 (Topham, war memorial).
58
Northampton Mercury, 16 Sept. 1921; Derbyshire Advertiser, 2 Apr. 1909; TNA, PROB 11/1692/408;
ROLLR, DE 2094/3, 2094/4, 2094/12.
59
Rugby Advertiser, 10 Feb. 1928; Melton Mowbray Mercury, 28 Feb. 1907; VCH Yorks. N.R., I, 214–25, 251–
7.
60
Below, Local Government; Religious History.
61
A. Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, and Memory in Early Modern Britain and
Ireland (Oxford, 2012), 516.
62
Walsham, The Reformation, 516–18; A. Walsham, ‘Wyclif’s Well: Lollardy, landscape and memory in post-
Reformation England’, in A. McShane and G. Walker (eds), The Extraordinary and the Everyday in early
Modern England (Basingstoke, 2010), 142, 147–8, 154–5.
63
Nichols, History, IV, 297; Walsham, The Reformation, 517–18; Walsham, ‘Wyclif’s Well’, 154–5.
64
J. Throsby, The Memoirs of the Town and County of Leicester (Leicester, 1777), II, 113–16; Nichols, History,
IV, 264.
65
M.H. Bloxham, ‘Lutterworth church and the Wycliffe relics’, Trans. LAHS, 2, (1860–64), 72–80; J.
Crompton, ‘John Wyclif: A study in mythology’, Trans. LAHS, 42 (1966–67), 7–8.
66
Below, Religious History; J. Goodacre, ‘Wyclif in Lutterworth: Myths and Monuments’, Leicestershire
Historian, 3 (1983–4), 25–35; F.W. Bottrill, An Illustrated Handbook of Lutterworth (Lutterworth, 1882), 8–10,
14–15, 18–22.
67
Goodacre, ‘Wyclif’, 30.
5Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
Morning Star of the Reformation’ and ‘the first translator of the Bible into the English Language’
have not withstood later scrutiny.68
Figure 9: The Wyclif memorial (1897) and Wycliffe Memorial Methodist Church (1905).
Lutterworth became the centre for a new Rural District Council in 1894, and a cottage hospital, built
in 1899 on land given by widow Frances Palmer, presaged a revitalisation of the town following the
opening of the railway station. Lutterworth was particularly fortunate to have attracted industrialist
George Spencer, who became a major benefactor to the town, and probably to its United Reformed
Church. Spencer provided the town with employment, a cricket field, a recreation ground, a water
supply and an operating theatre for the hospital. A Central School, one of the first in the county,
provided secondary education for children from the town and surrounding villages from 1927.
Lutterworth’s character changed again from the 1960s, as the number of new houses began to
exceed the creation of employment and it became a dormitory town. Limited public transport
encouraged car ownership, and shopping elsewhere. Between 1974 and 2020, the RDC offices
moved to Market Harborough, the police station closed and two major banks left the town.
Uncertainties remained over the future of the hospital and the impact of new housing east of the
motorway.
68
G.R. Evans, John Wyclif (Oxford, 2007), 243–54; Crompton, ‘John Wyclif’, 6–34.
6Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
Communal Life
Friendly societies
The Lutterworth Tradesmen’s Original Benefits Society was said to have been founded in 1746.69 It
was dissolved in 1872.70 A female friendly society was registered in 1836.71 There were at least six
friendly societies in 1873. The largest was the Earl of Denbigh Lodge (Manchester Unity), with 207
members and funds of £3,285. There was also a branch of the Nottingham Ancient Odd Fellows with
24 members, a ‘Wickliffe’ lodge of the Nottingham Albion Odd Fellows with 52 members, an
unaffiliated friendly society with 56 members and an enrolled club.72 In 1937 there were 12 friendly
societies or sick and benefit clubs in the town.73
Social activities of the churches
St Mary’s church formed a Young Men’s Club and a football team in 1929.74 There was a youth club
in 1955.75 The former Mechanics Institute was purchased by the church in 2007. Renamed the
Churchgate Centre, it was used by church and community groups,76 and a foodbank was run from
there by the church in 2019.77
The Congregational Church had a cycling club in 1910,78 a football team between 1927 and 1931,79
and weekly evening clubs for boys and girls in the 1920s and 1930s.80 Lutterworth Free Church
Institute began in 1921 as a social club, meeting in the schoolroom of the Wesleyan church and open
to ‘all young men of the town connected to the Free Churches’. It outgrew the premises, and with
the agreement of the Wesleyan church, an adjacent ‘semi-ecclesiastical structure’ was built in 1925,
with a large room for billiards and a smaller room for quiet games or reading.81 The Wesleyan
church also had a football team in 1930.82 The Methodist church had its own youth club in the 1960s
and 1970s.83
Reading Rooms, libraries and museum
A subscription library was provided by stationer and bookseller John Bottrill, which contained over
3,000 volumes in 1808.84 It continued until the death of Frederick William Bottrill (John’s grandson)
69
ROLLR, DE 66, Box 2217.
70
Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1872 (Parl. Papers 1873 (323), lxi), p. 62.
71
Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1875 (Parl. Papers 1876 (424), lxix), p. 512.
72
Report of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, 1873 (Parl. Papers 1874 (355), lxii), pp. 196–8.
73
Bottrill’s Lutterworth and District Household Almanack and Dir. for 1938 (Lutterworth, 1937), unpaginated.
74
Rugby Advertiser, 1 Nov. 1929.
75
Rugby Advertiser, 16 Sept. 1955.
76
Oral testimony, Phillip Jones, member of St. Mary's Lutterworth congregation, 2012.
77
https://lutterworthchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Lutterworth-Cotesbach-Bitteswell-Curacy-Profile-
2018.pdf (accessed 8 Dec. 2020).
78
Rugby Advertiser, 11 June 1910.
79
Rugby Advertiser, 31 July 1931.
80
P. Bruce, R. Gates and B. Gates, A Brief History of Lutterworth United Reformed Church (Lutterworth,
1997), 25.
81
Rugby Advertiser, 27 Mar. 1925; P. Bruce, R. Gates and B. Gates, A Brief History of Lutterworth United
Reformed Church (Lutterworth, 1997), 29.
82
Below.
83
Coventry Evening Telegraph, 28 Dec. 1973.
84
Coventry Herald, 15 Jul. 1808.
7Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
in 1914.85 Rector Henry Ryder provided books for a parish library in 1809, with a small endowment
for repairs and purchases.86 It contained 290 volumes in 1846.87 The Independent chapel had its own
library in the late 19th century.88
The Mechanics’ Institute, founded in 1841, also established a library which had 600 volumes in
1846.89 It was open each evening and in the afternoon on market days.90 The Institute moved into a
new building erected by the Town Estate in 1876, adjacent to the churchyard gates (Figure 10).91
Figure 10: Mechanics’ Institute and Reading Room, built in 1876
The county council opened a library on High Street in 1950.92 It moved to larger premises on
Coventry Road in 1968,93 and to George Street c.2009.
Members of Lutterworth Historical Society started collecting items for a museum in the early
1950s.94 A steering committee formed in 1989, with support from the Town Council and the Town
Estate. Lutterworth museum opened in the Mechanics’ Institute on Church Gate in 1991.95 It moved
to Wycliffe House on Gilmorton Road in 2003.96 In 2020 there are plans for it to move to new
premises in the town centre.
85
Rugby Advertiser, 7 Mar. 1914.
86
Rpt of Charity Commissioners, p. 139.
87
W. White, Hist. Gaz. and Dir. Leics (Sheffield, 1846), 405.
88
P. Bruce, R. Gates and B. Gates, A Brief History of Lutterworth United Reformed Church (Lutterworth,
1997), 13.
89
W. White, Hist. Gaz. and Dir. Leics (Sheffield, 1846), 405
90
W. White, Hist. Gaz. and Dir. Leics (Sheffield, 1863), 757.
91
A.H. Dyson, Lutterworth: John Wycliffe’s Town (1913), 177; Leic. Chron., 29 Jan. 1876; J. Sumpter, A Brief
Historical Review of the Charity known as the Lutterworth Town Estate Trust (Lutterworth, c. 1926), 4.
92
Rugby Advertiser, 21 Jan. 1955.
93
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 12 Feb. 1968.
94
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 6 Jul. 1966; 10 Dec. 1969; Lutterworth Independent, May 1984.
95
Lutterworth Museum, typescript history of the museum.
96
Rugby Observer 13 Feb 2003.
8Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
Societies
The Lutterworth Gooseberry Show Society ran its first show for gooseberry growers in 1811, and it
remained an annual event until 1939.97 The Lutterworth Horticultural Society held an annual show
from 1861,98 which continued until at least 1970.99 Lutterworth Agricultural Society was established
in 1890,100 and held annual shows until at least 1939.101
A Volunteer Rifle Corps was formed in 1860.102 Lutterworth Rifle Club was formed in 1906.103 The
Wycliffe Flying Club for owners of racing pigeons was active in 1931.104 Lutterworth Railway Society
was formed in 1972.105 Its meetings continued to be popular in 2019.
The Wycliff (later Wiclif) Lodge of freemasons was consecrated in 1905.106 Edward Sherrier Lodge
was formed in 1948.107 The Lutterworth Masonic Association was established in 1962. It purchased
the former Ritz cinema, which was converted into a Freemasons’ Hall for the use of both lodges, and
dedicated in 1963.108 The building was refurbished in 1998, and became the Wiclif (later Wycliffe)
Rooms.109
A branch of the British Legion was formed in 1922.110 By 1930, there were men’s and women’s
branches, with nearly 200 members in the latter.111 The Legion acquired a club-house on Leicester
Road in 1936, with a billiards room and library.112
There was a Scout troop by 1916, Cubs had formed by 1924, and Rovers by 1927.113 A Beavers group
(for 6 to 8 year olds) was started in 1981.114 Girl Guides and Brownies were meeting by 1927, and
Rangers for older girls by 1930.115 A Rainbows Group for girls aged 5 to 7 was formed in the late
1980s.116
Lutterworth had a branch of the Women’s Institute in 1930. A morning group also started in 1983,
which subsequently amalgamated with Ullesthorpe branch.117
Lutterworth Rotary Club was formed in 1952, and Lutterworth Inner Wheel in 1954.118 An evening
group, the Rotary Club of Lutterworth Wycliffe, was formed in 1987, and a connected Inner Wheel
97
Northampton Mercury, 3 Aug. 1811; Rugby Advertiser, 1 Aug. 1939; Dyson, Lutterworth, 179–81.
98
Leic. Mercury, 28 Sep. 1861; Leic. Chron., 22 Aug. 1874.
99
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 1 Aug. 1970.
100
Wright’s Directory 1900, 151; Leic. Chron., 12 Sep. 1891.
101
Market Harborough Advertiser, 4 Aug. 1939.
102
Rugby Advertiser, 19 May 1860.
103
Leic. Daily Post, 10 Apr. 1906.
104
Rugby Advertiser, 15 May 1931.
105
Ex. inf. David Hanger, bookings secretary, 2011.
106
A. Newman, A History of the Masonic Province of Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicester, 2010), 30, 72.
107
Newman, History, 37, 61, 80.
108
Newman, History, 59, 72; Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 3 May 1962.
109
Newman, History, 59.
110
Rugby Advertiser, 23 Jun. 1922; 1 Dec. 1922.
111
Rugby Advertiser, 7 Nov. 1930.
112
Rugby Advertiser, 25 Dec. 1936.
113
Rugby Advertiser, 26 Aug. 1916; 14 Nov. 1924; Lutterworth Guardian, 8 July 1927.
114
Interview Jean Truman, leader of Beavers, 2011.
115
Lutterworth Guardian, 8 Jul. 1927; Rugby Advertiser, 6 Jun. 1930.
116
Ex Inf. Gemma Hill, member of first Rainbow group.
117
Interview with Frances Smith, President 2011.
118
Rugby Advertiser, 10 Jul. 1953; https://www.innerwheel.co.uk/our-districts/district-7.html (accessed 2 May
2019).
9Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
group was established in 1988.119 A Round Table for Lutterworth and District received its charter in
1958.120
A group of local people came together in 1998 to plan a large tapestry depicting scenes from
Lutterworth and its history to mark the forthcoming millennium. Over 1,650 people contributed at
least one stitch to the work, which was completed in 2000.121 It was on display in 2020 within St
Mary’s church.
Social Venues
The Town Hall was used for occasional concerts and other events, and was the venue for the hunt
ball between 1873 and 1890.122
The earl of Denbigh appears to have been closely involved in the foundation of the People’s Club,
which opened on Coventry Road in 1885, providing a place where working men could read
newspapers and books, play games and have public entertainments.123 It had closed by 1897.124 The
Ex-Service and Working Men’s Club and Institute opened on Leicester Road in 1923.125 Their sports
field opened in 1924, with a bowling green, tennis courts, a skittle alley and quoits pitches.126
A building on Swiftway, owned by Lutterworth RDC, was let as a sports and social centre in 1952.127
It became a boys’ club from c.1964,128 but the prefabricated building was deemed unsafe in 1975.129
A new gym opened on the site in 1977.130 Mixed discos were introduced in 1979, and membership
was opened to girls.131 The premises were rebuilt in 1982, to provide a sports hall, meeting rooms
and kitchen for the whole community, known as Swiftway Community Centre.132
Entertainment
Vocal and instrumental performers from Worcester, Birmingham, Lichfield, Banbury and Leicester
came together in St Mary’s church in 1778 to perform Handel’s Messiah in the afternoon, and a
programme of music in the evening, followed by a ball at the Greyhound.133
Lutterworth Choral Society was established in 1876.134 The Orchestral and Choral Society which
formed in 1897 appears to have been a new group.135 It had become Lutterworth Musical Society by
119
T. Bailey (ed.), Rotary in an English Market Town (Lutterworth, 2012), 2–3, 6–7;
https://www.innerwheel.co.uk/our-districts/district-7.html (accessed 2 May 2019).
120
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 21 Sep. 1979.
121
L. Jones, The Lutterworth Tapestry (Broughton Astley, 2000).
122
For example, Morning Post, 8 Feb. 1873; Nuneaton Advertiser, 31 Jan. 1874; Leicester Chronicle, 23 Feb
1889.
123
Leic. Chron., 17 Oct. 1885.
124
Rugby Advertiser, 22 Jan. 1910.
125
Lutterworth Guardian, 12 Oct. 1923.
126
Lutterworth Guardian. 13 Jun. 1924.
127
Rugby Advertiser, 25 Jan. 1952.
128
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 19 Jul. 1975.
129
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 29 Nov. 1975.
130
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 24 Oct. 1977.
131
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 4 Jul. 1979; 26 Oct. 1979.
132
Leics. Mercury, 19 May 1981; Lutterworth Independent, Dec. 1982.
133
Northampton Mercury, 18 May 1778.
134
Leic. Chron., 19 Feb. 1876.
135
Leic. Chron., 1 Feb. 1913.
10Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
1925,136 and reformed after the Second World War as Lutterworth Choral Society.137 Renamed
Lutterworth and District Choral Society,138 it had 70 members in 2018.139 Lutterworth Opera Group
formed in 1968.140 It became Lutterworth Musical Theatre Company in 2008, but dissolved in
2014.141
Lutterworth had a brass band in 1860.142 A band formed by the Rifle corps played at events in the
town from 1866.143 A drum and fife band formed in 1893.144 Lutterworth Town Band formed before
1901.145 It had frequent engagements until the 1930s,146 and reformed after the Second World
War.147 The band later folded, but was re-formed in 1982, and played at events across Leicestershire
in 2019.148
There was an amateur dramatic society in 1893.149 Lutterworth and District Drama Group was
founded in 1949, changing its name the following year to Wycliffe Drama Group.150 It staged several
performances in 2019.151 A Saturday stage school called ‘Future Faces’ opened in the Grammar
School in 2000. It became Lutterworth Youth Theatre Academy in 2008, and provided classes in
acting and musical theatre, and ran schools’ programmes.152 A School of Dance was formed in 1977,
and there continued to be a dance school in the town in 2020.153
Payne’s Theatre Royal visited in 1866 and 1868, with their travelling premises erected in a field
adjoining Leicester Road.154 They visited again in 1915, erecting their portable theatre adjacent to
Rugby Road, where they put on a special performance for the wounded soldiers in the VAD hospital
at Ullesthorpe.155
William and Annie Sanger opened a cinema in 1916.156 Shortly afterwards, Thomas Green converted
a former factory on Market Street for use as a theatre or cinema and offered films, music-hall acts,
comedy and boxing.157 It was known as the Empire Picture Cinematograph Hall in 1925.158 The
proprietor was J.F. Horrocks in 1930, when the premises burned down an hour after a film had
136
Rugby Advertiser, 24 Apr. 1925.
137
Rugby Advertiser, 11 Jan. 1946.
138
Rugby Advertiser, 25 Dec. 1959; Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 15 Apr. 1971.
139
http://www.lutterworthchoral.co.uk/page11.html (accessed 6 May 2019).
140
http://www.lutterworthchoral.co.uk/page4.html (accessed 6 May 2019).
141
http://www.lmtc.org.uk/ (accessed 6 May 2019).
142
Rugby Advertiser, 19 May 1860.
143
Leics. Mercury, 19 July 1862; Northampton Mercury, 25 Aug. 1866.
144
Nuneaton Advertiser, 8 Apr. 1893; 29 Dec. 1894.
145
Rugby Advertiser, 1 Jun. 1901; Leic. Daily Post, 22 Aug. 1906.
146
Many examples, including Rugby Advertiser, 10 Jun. 1932.
147
For example, Rugby Advertiser, 19 Aug. 1949; 14 Apr. 1950.
148
Interview Simon Maher, band member, 2011; http://www.lutterworthtownband.com/About-Us (accessed 6
May 2019).
149
Leic. Chron., 6 May 1893.
150
Wycliffe Drama Group Archive, Minutes of Inaugural Meeting of Lutterworth and District Drama Group 24
Nov.1949; https://www.wycliffedramagroup.co.uk/about-us (accessed 6 May 2019).
151
https://www.wycliffedramagroup.co.uk/about-us (accessed 6 May 2019).
152
Interview with Bradley Woodward, principal of LYTA, 17 Nov. 2011.
153
www.warrington-schoolofdance.co.uk (accessed 6 Sep. 2011); http://www.lmsdlutterworth.com/ (accessed 4
Aug. 2020).
154
Rugby Advertiser, 26 May 1866; Leic. Chron., 30 May 1868.
155
Rugby Advertiser, 2 Oct. 1915.
156
Rugby Advertiser, 14 Oct. 1916.
157
P. Morgan, Lutterworth Independent, Feb. 1978, 6–7, with information from Thomas Green’s grandson;
Rugby Advertiser, 23 May 1930; 11 Oct. 1935.
158
Kelly’s Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (1925), 617.
11Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
ended.159 Horrocks reopened in 1932 in the Old Bank House in Bank Street.160 Clarence Spencer took
over the business in 1934.161 He built a new cinema in George Street, the Ritz, which opened in 1938
and seated 364 people on two levels.162 It closed in 1961, due to falling attendances.163
Lutterworth’s August Feast Week coincided with the patronal festival of the parish. In the 19th
century it took the form of a funfair with visiting attractions such as Wombwell’s menagerie, and
included cricket matches and the annual flower show.164 Numbers were swelled in 1839 by 800 men
employed by Midland Counties Railway laying the line between Ullesthorpe and Rugby.165 In 1938
the event had been reduced to a pleasure fair on Station Road and a ‘feast’ dance.166 It was
celebrated in 1954 by a parade with tractor-drawn floats, music from the town band, fancy dress
and football competitions, sideshows and the annual flower show.167 Interest was dwindling in the
1970s, and in an attempt to revive it, the event was moved to June and renamed ‘Carnival Week’. An
estimated 4,000 people attended in 1976.168 It was moved back to August in 1986.169
The September hiring fair was largely a pleasure fair in 1869, with swings, roundabouts and shooting
galleries alongside its traditional function.170 Hirings had ‘almost died out’ by 1899.171 It appears to
have merged into the August fair in the early 20th century.
Inns and alehouses
Indoor games such as ‘shove-groat’ were played in the town’s inns and alehouses in the 16th and
17th centuries.172 The Denbigh Arms had a bowling green in the 17th century.173 It was also the
venue for monthly assemblies between July and October in the 1770s.174 Balls were occasionally held
at the Denbigh Arms and at the Hind in 1770.175 An inn on Beast Market in 1773 had a room which
had ‘often been used for a Play-House and Dressing-Room’, suggesting occasional theatrical
performances.176
Auctions were regularly held at the larger inns in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.177 They
were also the venues for inquests,178 and political meetings.179 In 1872, the Hind was the chosen
159
Rugby Advertiser, 23 May 1930.
160
Rugby Advertiser, 17 Jul. 1931; Kelly’s Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (1932), 708.
161
Era, 25 Jul. 1934; Kelly’s Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (1936), 879.
162
Rugby Advertiser, 4 Dec. 1936; 7 Oct. 1938; Lutterworth Museum, box 77, souvenir programme.
163
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 3 May 1962.
164
Leic. Chron., 27 Aug. 1864.
165
Northampton Mercury, 17 Aug. 1839; 14 Aug. 1839.
166
Rugby Advertiser, 26 Aug. 1938.
167
Rugby Advertiser, 27 Aug. 1954.
168
Leic. Mercury, 27 Oct 1975; 18 Nov. 1975; 13 Feb. 1976; 2 Jul. 1976.
169
Leic. Mercury, 4 June 1986.
170
Leic. Chron., 18 Sep. 1869.
171
Leic. Chron., 14 Oct. 1899.
172
TNA, SC 2/183/83; SC 2/183/84; below, Local Government.
173
Warwickshire RO, CR 2017 D 163/1; D 170, f. 8; D 235.
174
Northampton Mercury, 25 Jun. 1770; 13 Jul. 1772; 19 Jul. 1773; 25 Jul. 1774.
175
Northampton Mercury, 17 Sept. 1770.
176
Northampton Mercury, 2 Aug. 1773.
177
For example, Northampton Mercury, 12 Mar. 1770 (Hind); Leic. Chron., 20 Nov. 1847 (Greyhound); Rugby
Advertiser, 18 Jan. 1946 (Hind).
178
Leic. Jnl, 12 June 1846 (Ram); Rugby Advertiser, 27 Nov. 1886 (Denbigh Arms).
179
Northampton Mercury, 23 Jan. 1819 (Hind).
12Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
venue for the first Hunt Ball to be held in Lutterworth, which was attended by ‘120 of the elite of the
neighbourhood’.180
Allotments and open spaces
Over 40 a. of land was let as allotments for poor families in 1846.181 That had increased to 50a. by
1863.182 In 1896, the 9th earl of Denbigh offered the field adjoining the Grammar School for
allotments at a fixed rent on a seven-year lease.183 The offer does not appear to have been accepted,
but allotments had been created to the west of Leicester Road (13 a.) and north of Coventry Road
(13 a.) by 1901.184 The former later became housing (Central Avenue), but land was purchased by the
RDC from Viscount Feilding in 1946 for further allotments.185 In 1967, there were allotments to the
west of Crescent Road (5 a.) and south of Council Street (4.7 a.). The Coventry Road allotments were
transformed into the council-owned recreation ground by 1955.186 The allotment site near Council
Street became housing in the 1980s.187 The Crescent Road allotments remained in 2019, and new
allotments opened that year to the south-east of Wood Bridge.188
The quantity of glebe land adjacent to the rectory increased at enclosure in 1792.189 Part was used as
a cricket field and recreational ground in the mid 19th century, and possibly much earlier.190
The Memorial Gardens and war memorial, at the corner of Church Street and George Street, were
laid out and opened in 1921.191 Lutterworth Country Park opened in 2003 on the western edge of
the parish.192
Sports
There is evidence of archery practice in 1569, when Thomas Saunter accidentally shot and killed 13
year-old John Saunter, possibly his son.193
Land known as the ‘kilne yard’ and connected to the manor house was used as a bowling green in
1726 and 1757.194 The house, which became the Denbigh Arms, was let to William Mash in 1783
with the bowling green and a close called Bowling Green, suggesting the green had changed
location.195
Lutterworth Bowling Club was formed in 1936, and played on a green at the Coventry Road
recreation ground.196 The green was extended in 1971.197 Women were not originally able to join,
180
Nuneaton Advertiser, 17 Feb. 1872.
181
W. White, Hist., Gaz. and Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (Sheffield 1846), 406.
182
W. White, Hist., Gaz. and Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (Sheffield 1863), 758.
183
Leic. Chron., 7 Mar. 1896.
184
Leic. Chron., 27 Apr. 1895; OS map 25”, Leics. XLVIII.12 (1904 edn); XLVIII.16 (1904 edn).
185
Lutterworth RDC Minute Book 10, 4 July 1946.
186
OS Map, 1:2500, SP 5484 (1955 edn).
187
OS Map, 1:2500, SP 5484 (1972 edn; 1987 edn).
188
https://www.lutterworth.org.uk/allotments1.html (accessed 19 Oct. 2020).
189
ROLLR, EN/AX/211/1; Lincs. Arch., DIOC/TER/23, ff. 592–8.
190
OS map 25”, Leics. XLVIII.16 (1904).
191
A. Ward, How Lutterworth got its War Memorial ( Lutterworth 2011), 21; Smith Around Lutterworth, 54.
192
Lutterworth Community Forum Mins, 7 June 2005; Lutterworth Mail, 12 Jul. 2001.
193
Cal. Pat. 1566–69, 415–6.
194
Warwickshire RO, CR 2017 D 163/1; D170, f. 8.
195
Warwickshire RO, CR 2017 D 235.
196
Lewis Williams, History of the Wycliffe Bowling Club (Lutterworth, undated) 10
197
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 15 Sept. 1971.
13Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
and formed their own club in 1972. This segregation had ceased by the end of the 20th century.198
The Follsain Wycliffe Sports and Social Club had a team and a green in 1956. The club continued as
Wycliffe Bowls Club when the company ceased to trade in 1982, but lost its green. A new green was
seeded at Dunley Way in 1986. A ladies section was formed in 1992. The club moved to Bitteswell in
1993.199
A Lutterworth team played a team from Ullesthorpe at cricket in 1789.200 A club began to play
regularly on glebe land at Coventry Road from about 1850.201 The ground was enlarged in 1874,
when Lutterworth Cricket Club was one of the strongest clubs in the county.202 There were several
other clubs in the town in the 1860s and 1870s, including Lutterworth Aurora,203 Lutterworth
Morning Star,204 and Lutterworth Tradesmen’s Cricket Club.205 The Wycliffe Cricket Club was formed
in 1884 ‘for those who are engaged in business during the day’.206 The Wycliffe and Lutterworth
clubs amalgamated in 1887.207
George Spencer bought nearly 10 a. of glebe land on Coventry Road in 1937, and conveyed the
cricket ground to the Town Estate.208 The following year two of Spencer’s sons, Herbert and George,
provided a pavilion.209 This burned down c.1997,210 and was rebuilt. Lutterworth Cricket Club played
in the Leicestershire and Rutland Premier League in 2019.211
Lutterworth [Rugby] Football Club was formed in 1870.212 It is believed to be the first rugby club
established in the county outside Leicester.213 In 1888, they agreed to play all matches under Rugby
Union rules.214 The club acquired the land adjacent to the cricket ground in 1906.215 They had a
squad of 60 players in 1926, probably helped by the grammar school switching winter games from
association to rugby football in 1923, and were league and cup champions.216 In 1927 it was said that
‘Lutterworth prides itself in being a thorough Rugger town’,217 but the club struggled to find players
in the 1930s.218 It was revived after the Second World War, and purchased the former Baptist Chapel
in 1954 for use as a clubhouse. They moved to a new ground in Bitteswell c.1972.219
Wycliffe Association Football Club was formed c.1895. Its first president was Lutterworth’s curate,
Reverend Raymond de C. Edwards, and Canon Frederick Alderson, Lutterworth’s rector, was one of
198
Ex inf. Peter Jackson, groundsman and member for 40 years, 2011.
199
Williams, History of the Wycliffe Bowling Club, 34
200
E.E. Snow, A History of Leicestershire Cricket (Leicester, 1949), 15.
201
Dyson, Lutterworth, 164.
202
Leic. Chron., 16 May 1874; Snow, History, 80.
203
Leic. Chron., 22 Jun. 1867.
204
Leic. Chron., 3 Jun. 1871.
205
Leic. Jnl, 9 Apr. 1869.
206
Leic. Chron., 14 Jun. 1884
207
Leic. Chron., 8 Jan. 1887.
208
CERC, ECE/7/1/77948; Leicester Advertiser, 24 Jul. 1937.
209
Rugby Advertiser, 15 Feb. 1938.
210
Photograph of fire in Lutterworth Museum.
211
https://lutterworth.play-cricket.com/ (accessed 4 May 2020).
212
Leic. Jnl, 23 Dec. 1870; 26 Jan. 1872.
213
Leics. VCH, III, 286.
214
Leic. Chron., 15 Sept. 1888.
215
Leic. Daily Post, 26 Nov. 1906.
216
Rugby Advertiser, 10 Sept. 1926; G. Irving, Lutterworth Grammar School, Anniversary Book 1956,
Centenary Revision (Lutterworth, 1980), 49–50.
217
Rugby Advertiser, 16 Sept. 1927.
218
Rugby Advertiser, 1 Sept. 1931.
219
Ex inf. Colin Hudson, secretary Lutterworth Rugby Football Club, 2011.
14Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
the club’s three vice presidents.220 Lutterworth Town Football Club was formed in the 1920s, but was
‘defunct, or moribund at best’ in 1927.221 The churches rallied round in 1930, when the Lutterworth
and District league included teams from St Mary’s, the Congregational and Wesleyan churches. They
were soon joined by a factory team from Vedonis. Lutterworth United, largely the former St Mary’s
players, formed in 1931.222 Lutterworth Town joined the Leicestershire Senior League in 1955.223
They played on the Coventry Road recreation ground until 1970, when they relocated to a purpose
built ground on Dunley Way, which opened with a match against a Leicester City side before 2,000
spectators.224 They moved to a ground in Bitteswell in 1991, then back to Coventry Road in 2011.225
Lutterworth Juniors and Youth FC was formed in 1983, and became Lutterworth Athletic in 1993.
Their home ground was at Bitteswell.226
Lutterworth Grammar School Old Girls’ Hockey Club was formed in 1922.227 The club played at
Coventry Road in 1925, when they affiliated to Leicestershire Women’s Hockey Association.
Membership was widened to include those who had not attended the grammar school in 1932. The
club was renamed Lutterworth Ladies Hockey Club in 1973. In 1991 Leicestershire league rule
changes meant that the game had to be played on a synthetic surface, so training and home
matches were moved to a pitch at Guthlaxton College, South Wigston. They returned to Lutterworth
in 2001, when a synthetic pitch was opened at Lutterworth Grammar School.228
Horse racing meets took place on many occasions in the early 18th century with substantial cash
prizes, including a plate of £10 value ‘the day after the great Plate’ in 1704, and a gold tumbler
worth 40 guineas in 1722.229 Races for £50 were held on two days in 1770, with a ball at the end of
each day, held at the Denbigh Arms on Monday and the Hind on Tuesday.230 There was a
Lutterworth steeplechase with four races around the Coventry Road cricket and recreation ground in
1867.231 Pony and Galloway racing took place at the same location in 1899.232
The pastoral landscape around Lutterworth was ideally suited for fox-hunting, and convenient for
the Pytchley, Atherstone, Billesdon (later Sir Bache Cunard’s) and North Warwickshire Hounds, with
hunting available in the 1870s and 1880s on six days of the week.233 The Fernie also hunted within
five miles of the town.234
220
Rugby Advertiser, 22 Sept. 1894; Nuneaton Advertiser, 19 Oct. 1895.
221
Rugby Advertiser, 16 Sept. 1927.
222
Rugby Advertiser, 7 Oct. 1927; 25 Sept. 1931.
223
Football Club History Database http://www.fchd.info/LUTTERWT.HTM (accessed 9 May 2019).
224
Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 29 Apr. 1970; 6 Aug. 1971; Ex inf. Peter Knight, committee member Lutterworth
Town AFC, 2011.
225
Ex inf. Peter Knight.
226
https://www.lutterworthathleticfc.com/; https://www.lutterworthathleticfc.com/lutterworth-athletic-fc-about-
us/lutterworth-athletic-history/ (accessed 4 May 2020).
227
G. Irving, Lutterworth Grammar School Anniversary Book 1956 (Leicester, 1956), 49.
228
Ex inf. Jeanne Lewis, President Lutterworth Ladies Hockey Club, 2011.
229
London Gaz., 31 Aug. 1704; Stamford Mercury, 9 Aug. 1722.
230
Northampton Merc., 17 Sept. 1770.
231
Leic. Chron., 2 Mar. 1867.
232
Leic. Chron., 26 Aug. 1899.
233
Field, 7 June 1879; Sporting Gaz., 10 Mar. 1883.
234
Coventry Herald, 12 Feb 1909.
15Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
A tennis club had been formed by 1910, which played at Coventry Road.235 The club reformed in
1944, with a junior section from 1954.236 It moved to Bitteswell in 1997.237
A golf club was formed in 1904, and leased c.40 a. in the south-east of the parish. A new nine-hole
course was constructed in 1916. Initially only open in winter, in 1922 it was decided to open the
course all year round. The club owned 74 a. in 1969, when the membership stood at 475. The course
was increased to 15 holes in 1979 and to 18 holes in 1987. It was redesigned in 1994 to
accommodate the bypass, with a new clubhouse built in 1997.238
The Earl of Denbigh gave a piece of ground next to the river for a bathing place, which opened in
1874, replacing a smaller facility. A subscription raised £64 to cover the cost of the work and to
provide sheds for changing.239
The public raised over £10,000 in the 1960s towards the cost of a swimming pool. Leicestershire
Education Authority offered a site at the Grammar School, and agreed to contribute £15,000 and
cover the cost of its use for educational purposes if the RDC agreed to cover running costs when it
was used by the public outside school hours. The pool opened in 1966.240 Lutterworth Swimming
Club was formed in 1967,241 and Lutterworth Sub-Aqua Club in 1979.242
A sports centre opened on Coventry Road in 2004, with a swimming pool, gym, sports hall and
meeting rooms.243
Education
Sunday Schools
Anglican Sunday schools for boys and girls were opened in 1789.244 These were attended by 90 boys
and 120 girls in 1818.245 The Congregational Church had a Sunday school from 1807.246 By 1851 it
had an average attendance of 111.247 There was also a Wesleyan Sunday School in 1851, attended by
25 people.248
235
Leic. Daily Post, 27 May 1910.
236
H. Mainwaring and others, Lutterworth Tennis Club: in Celebration of the Golden Jubilee 1993
(Lutterworth, 1993), not paginated.
237
Ex inf. Elvin Haigh, secretary Lutterworth Tennis Club, 2011.
238
G. Reeve, Lutterworth Golf Club Centenary Book 1904-2004 (Lutterworth, undated).
239
Leicester Chronicle, 16 May 1874; Rugby Advertiser, 24 Apr. 1875.
240
The Lutterworthian, February 1966, 12; Rural District Council of Lutterworth, Handbook 1971–2, not
paginated.
241
http://www.lutterworthsc.co.uk accessed 13 Aug. 2011
242
http://www.lsac.co.uk/history.php accessed 13 Aug. 2011
243
http://www.harborough.gov.uk/site/scrpts/documents_info.php?documentID=30&pageNumber=3 (accessed
13 Aug. 2011); www.harboroughleisure.co.uk/lutterworth (accessed 3 Jan. 2012).
244
Northampton Mercury, 25 Jul. 1789.
245
Digest of Parochial Returns to Select Committee on Educ. of the Poor (Parl. Papers 1819 (224), ix), p. 462.
246
P. Bruce, R. Gates and B. Gates, A Brief History of Lutterworth United Reformed Church (Lutterworth,
1997), 10.
247
TNA, HO 129/408/28.
248
TNA, HO 129/408/27.
16Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
Day Schools before 1870
The ‘Church-gates’ school
A ‘scolehouse’ stood in the corner of Bakehouse Lane (later Baker Street) in 1509, immediately
south-east of the churchyard, when it was held ‘for the use of the town’.249 It may be associated with
the chantry set up by Edmund Muryell in 1478.250 Some of the schoolmasters in the 17th century
were graduates, including John Newbolt (licensed 1666) and William Vincent (licensed 1685).251
In 1630, Robert Poole gave the rent from two cottages to this school for the education of eight
fatherless or poor children, born and living in Lutterworth.252 His son, also Robert, left half a yardland
and a small close in Lutterworth in 1699, for an apprenticeship for one boy each year who had been
educated through his father’s gift.253 A gift by Margaret Bent in 1693 enabled her trustees to give the
rent on c.7 a. of land to whatever charitable uses they saw fit. They provided £4 annually to this
school in 1838, to educate another four poor boys.254 John Durrad bequeathed £20 in 1724, to teach
poor children to read, ‘as well the children of dissenters as others’.255 This was paying for another
two boys in 1838, when there were also c.26 paying pupils. All the charity boys were learning to
read, and nine of them were also learning writing and ‘accounts’.256
The school probably found it difficult to attract able schoolmasters from 1735, when the more
generously funded Sherrier school was established, and the two schools may also have been
competing for paying pupils.257 The building was taken down and rebuilt on the same site by the
town-masters in 1781, with the upper floor comprising a schoolroom and residence for the
master.258 The cost of £57 7s. 7½d. was covered by the sale of materials from the old school, and
donations, including £23 8s. 3½d. from clock and watchmaker Thomas Teissier Corrall, and 4 guineas
from the earl and countess of Denbigh.259 It suggests an appetite for the school to continue, to
provide an alternative to the Anglican ethos of the Sherrier school.
In 1808, Leicester Corporation reviewed the operation and surplus funds of Alderman Newton’s
charity, established in 1760. An annual payment of £26 was offered to the rector and churchwardens
of Lutterworth to provide teaching and clothes to 25 poor boys. Conditions included seeking
subscriptions to enable further children to be educated free of charge.260 These were accepted in
1813.261 Payments were directed to the ‘church-gates’ school,262 but in 1833 the total number of
249
Warws. RO, CR 2017/E42, f. 1.
250
Warws. RO, CR 2017/D199.
251
ROLLR, 1D 41/34/2/206 (Newbolt, 1674); 1D 41/34/3/8 (Vincent, 1685).
252
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners., pp. 133–5.
253
ROLLR, Wills 1699, f. 70; Report of the Charity Commissioners, p. 135.
254
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, pp. 135, 139–40.
255
TNA, PROB 11/613/144; Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 135.
256
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 135.
257
Below.
258
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, pp. 133.
259
ROLLR, DE 914/1.
260
G.A. Chinnery (ed.), Records of the Borough of Leicester, V (Leicester, 1965), 371, 378; Report of the
Charity Commissioners, pp. 9–17.
261
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 13.
262
Chinnery (ed.), Records, V, 509–10; Report of the Charity Commissioners, p. 135.
17Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins
pupils at the school had fallen to ten.263 The school closed in 1834.264 It re-opened by 1839, when 40
boys attended, including those educated through the Poole, Bent and Durrad charities.265
Sherrier School
In 1731, Reverend Edward Sherrier, rector of Shawell, bequeathed the interest on £200 to pay for
the education of five boys at the ‘church-gates’ school until the deaths of his widow and daughter.266
After their deaths, his land and property in Churchover (Warws.) and Shawell was to be conveyed to
trustees, with the interest and profits used to buy land and build a school, schoolmaster’s house and
almshouse in Lutterworth, and provide a salary for a schoolmaster. The trustees were always to
include the rector of Lutterworth, the vicar of Shawell and five other Anglican clergy. Sherrier’s
widow and daughter had both died by 1732. A house on George Street with a garden and yard was
purchased for a schoolmaster, and the town estate agreed that a building could be erected on their
adjacent land, to provide an almshouse for two people on the ground floor, and a schoolroom above
for up to 90 children.267
The master’s salary in 1818 was £83, together with a rent-free house, but only 20 boys attended.268
The school became affiliated to the National Society in 1820 at the request of rector Robert Johnson
and the school governors and trustees. The boys were taught the Anglican catechism and attended
worship in the parish church on Sundays.269
When the Leicester Corporation representatives visited Lutterworth in 1834, the Sherrier school
contained 80 or 90 boys, ‘a great part of them of the lowest class’, including the Alderman Newton
boys. The Master had chosen them from the boys already attending the school, and given them the
green coat, waistcoat and hat that the Newton charity provided. No additional educational places
had been made available.270 The Corporation cancelled the annual payment in 1835, because the
school was a National School.271
Bishop Ryder’s School
Reverend Henry Ryder, rector of Lutterworth from 1801, converted a property on Coventry Road
into a school for up to 30 girls from poor families, with a house for a schoolmistress. The girls would
be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, needlework and other work ‘suitable to their station’.272 The
school and two adjoining properties were conveyed to trustees shortly after Ryder left Lutterworth
in 1815, with a property to its east and two pieces of land.273 The income from the land and second
property was intended to cover all costs relating to the school, including the mistress’s salary.274
There were 35 pupils in 1818.275 A replacement school was built c.1833 on land given by the earl of
263
Abstract of Education Returns (Parl. Papers 1835 (62), xlii), p. 20.
264
Chinnery (ed.), Records, V, 509–11.
265
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 135.
266
ROLLR, DE 126/1/3/2.
267
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, pp. 135–8; ROLLR, DE 126/1/39.
268
Digest of Parochial Returns, p. 462.
269
CERC, NS/7/1/8135.
270
Chinnery (ed.), Records, V, 510.
271
Chinnery (ed.), Records, V, 509–11; Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 15.
272
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 138.
273
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 138; ODNB, s.v. Ryder, Henry (1777–1836), bishop of Lichfield and
Coventry, accessed 11 May 2019.
274
Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, pp. 138–9.
275
Digest of Parochial Returns, p. 462.
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