Meandering Through Time
  • Home
  • My Family Stories
    • Bustaine of Braunton: Introduction
    • Hunt of Barnstaple Introduction >
      • Christopher Hunt >
        • Edward Hunt >
          • Richard Hunt >
            • Richard Hunt
            • Mary Hunt
    • Lakeman of Mevagissey >
      • Peter Lakeman c1698-1740
    • Meavy Introduction >
      • 6th to 9th Century Meavy >
        • Meavy Pre Conquest >
          • 1066 and Life in Domesday England >
            • Domesday and 13th Century Charters >
              • The Anarchy >
                • Walter, Wido and William Meavy >
                  • The Beginnings of a New Era
    • Mitchell of Crantock: An Introduction >
      • William Mitchell of Crantock >
        • Samuel Mitchell of Crantock >
          • Edith Mitchell >
            • Epilogue: Lescliston Farm
    • Mohun of Dunster: Introduction >
      • William Mohun c1050 - c1111 >
        • William Mohun c1100 - c1143 >
          • William Mohun - 1176 >
            • William - 1193 >
              • Reynold Mohun c1183 - 1213
              • Reynold Mohun c1210 -1257 >
                • Alice Mohun
    • Purches of Hampshire and Cornwall >
      • Samuel Purches 1733 - 1804 >
        • Samuel Purches 1766 - >
          • William Samuel Purches 1803 - 1861 >
            • Henry James Purches
    • Scoboryo of St Columb Major >
      • James and Joan Scoboryo 1640 - 1686
    • Thomas Vaughan: An Introduction >
      • Chapter One: Monmouthshire, Wales.
      • Chapter Two: The Beaufort Patronage
      • ​Chapter Three: Out With the Old
      • Chapter Four: Kentish Connections and Opportunities >
        • Chapter Five: Getting Personal
        • Chapter Six: ​The Children of Thomas Vaughan
        • Chapter Seven: Moving on
        • ​Chapter Eight: At Ludlow
        • Chapter Nine: The Arrest
        • Chapter Ten: Three Castles
        • Chapter Eleven: The Beginning of the End
        • Chapter Twelve: A Death Deserved ?
    • Smith of Barkby Introduction >
      • Susanna Smith
    • Taylor Introduction >
      • Joseph Taylor >
        • John Henry Taylor
    • Tosny of Normandy >
      • Godehute de Tosny
    • Toon of Leicestershire: Introduction >
      • John Toon 1799 -
      • Thomas Toon 1827 - 1874
    • Underwood of Coleorton Introduction
    • Umfreville of Devon >
      • The Northumbrian Umfrevilles >
        • The Glamorgan Umfrevilles
  • Other Families
  • History Blog
  • Wars of the Roses Blog
  • The Ancestors
  • Hendley of Coursehorne Kent
    • 5th to 12th Century Hendleys >
      • Gervais Hendley 1302 - c1344 >
        • Thomas Hendley >
          • Grevais Hendley c 1471 - 1534 >
            • Walter Hendley >
              • Elizabeth Hendley >
                • Ellen Hendley 1521- 1560 >
                  • Anne Hendley 1523 - >
                    • Other Hendleys
  • Pigott Family of Whaddon Buckinghamshire
  • Links
  • Contact
  • New Page
  • New Page
  • New Page

Smith of Barkby in Leicestershire


Introduction 
The County of Leicestershire covers an area of eight hundred and thirty two miles and is divided into eight districts, including the City of Leicester, which sits at its centre. Leicestershire has long been associated with farming, engineering and textiles. It was agriculturist Robert Bakewell who farmed just outside Loughborough, who was cited by Darwin in his Origin of the Species for his work in selective breeding. In John Taylor's Loughborough Bell Foundry, Great Paul, Britain's largest cast bell, that now resides in St Paul's Cathedral, was made. The stocking frame invented by William Lee in 1589 would appear in Leicestershire homes at the very beginning of the 17th century. This stocking frame would create employment in the county right up to the present day - interestingly, at the time of writing the textile company Wolsey, established in Leicester in 1755 and one of the oldest existing textile companies in the world, closed it factory.  

The district of Charnwood is an area that lies to the north of Leicester, it takes its name from the Charnwood Forest. It was the home of coal mines and the aforementioned stocking frame industry, and it is in this one district that a quarter of my paternal ancestors originated. The villages in which my ancestors lived surround the forest. Lying on the forest’s north-west side are the mining communities of Thringstone, Whitwick, Colorton and Swannington, to the north-east are the towns that are associated with the framework knitting industry that of Loughborough, Syston and Wymeswold. Just over thirteen miles to the south-west lies Hinckley (a separate district that is combined with Bosworth) that too is associated with textiles.
Picture
In the 18th century industry would take over from the traditional dependency on the land and the mills would see the end of the framework knitter’s cottage industry.
With the arrival of the canal, and later the railway, individuals and whole families, who had lived in Leicestershire’s villages for generations, would leave to seek work elsewhere leading to an increase in population that would cause some villages to become towns. The population of the village of Syston would almost double by the middle of the 19th century, and the City of Leicester’s border would gradually creep outwards into the countryside, so much so that the small village of Barkby, that once lay just over four miles from the city itself, now lies just over one mile. The encroachment of larger towns into the countryside engulfed villages in its path - the village of Thurmaston for instance is now a suburb of Leicester.

​
Agriculture had been the mainstay of Leicestershire’s economy, an economy which was based on small farms, most with under one hundred acres of land that specialised in arable, dairy, and stock rearing. Agricultural labourers lived in accommodation on the farm on which the worked or in houses rented in their village. The world of farming was still based on the old feudal system made up of labourers, tenant farmers and wealthy landowners, these landowners were no longer nobles but the ‘self made man’ - the gentleman.
Picture
Cover from the printed list of claims of proprietors in respect of the enclosure of Charnwood Forest.
It was these gentlemen who used the new Enclosure Act for financial gain, the wealthy landowner gained much but it was the agricultural labourers and their families who suffered, just like in Tudor times when families who had the least, lost the most.  From the middle of the eighteenth century enclosure by parliamentary act was seen as the norm, in just over three hundred years over 5,000 enclosure bills were enacted which meant that just over a fifth of the total area of England, that is over six million acres, was in the hands of private individuals and it was one of these landholders that holds the key to accessing the life of my Smith ancestors.



Susanna Smith 6th Great Grandmother
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.