England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Glenfield St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Glenfield is located in central Leicestershire just west of the city of Leicester, indeed it has become absorbed into the city as a suburb over the course of time. Glenfield was once a separate village about 2 miles northwest of the city, nowadays housing has spread into a continuous belt almost to the M1 and A46 roads which describe Glenfield's western boundaries. With housing growth so has the population of Glenfield grown far beyond what it would have been as a village. Glenfield grew up as a settlement on slightly higher ground to the east of a small stream, the Rothley Brook, which flows northeastwards before joining the River Soar at Rothley. Glenfield parish was divided into two other chapels of ease, both of which have their own marriages records namely Braunstone and Kirby Muxloe. All three supported just over 1,000 parishioners on an acreage of almost 4,000 acres. The land is underlain with heavy clays making arable agriculture difficult, as a result pastures dominated the parish. Glenfield, in the days of Domesday Book, was held by Hugh of Grandmesnil and supported 9 ploughs as well as a mill, meadows and woodland.

The Church

St Peter's church is tucked away behind modern housing, appropriately enough at the end of Church Lane. The church is a Victorian replacement for an ancient mediaeval building which now lies as a ruin to the north of the present church. St Peter's clearly did not impress Pevsner describing it as a "serious, rather dull work". The building was erected between 1874 and 1877 in granite but Pevsner spends more time describing what the mediaeval predecessor contained than describing the present building. The church sits at the end of a cul de sac behind metal gates with a large section of the graveyard metalled as a car park. Trees hem in the site from the north but the site is large with an extensive graveyard beyond the car park.