One barn ….. three stories

Someone will know the full story of the bricked-up barn in the village of Hallaton.

It looks like the large entrance was filled in on two separate occasions.

Just when those alterations were carried out I have yet to find out.

The barn is now a residential property, and there at present the story stops.

Location; Hallaton

Picture; the barn with stories 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 1 the village

When you were born in a city and at the age of 19 exchanged one for another wandering our rural villages can be fascinating.

St Michael's parish church from Eastgate, 2024

It was last week when on a hot sunny day we left the hamlet of Kibworth Harcourt and drove the small twisty lanes with no clear purpose, other than to see what was there.

And that is how just eight miles out from Kibworth Harcourt we arrived in Hallaton which has all you might expect of a village in the heart of the English countryside.

The War Memorial, 2024

These included the war memorial, the church, a school and even a museum which to be fair was only open at weekends.

My Wikipedia tells me that, “The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is mainly of the 13th century: the aisles were added a century later. 

The church is sited on rising ground and has a dignified tower with a fine broach spire (one of the best in the county); the nave and chancel and aisles have nobility and beauty. 

The sculptured stonework of the north aisle contrasts with the plain battlemented south aisle. A former rector is commemorated by a handsome monument attached to one of the corners.

The village has a famous bottle kicking ritual and "Hare Pie Scramble", which take place usually on Easter Monday. There is a small village museum, offering history of the area. 

Flowers, green stuff and a thatched cottage, 2024

The Hallaton Treasure, a late Iron Age hoard of more than 5,000 silver and gold coins was found at a site near Hallaton in 2000”.*

Alas the pub opposite the war memorial was closed but then it was only 10.30 in the morning.

And at that time little was stirring, apart from a Waitrose grocery van, two teenage girls, and the stone mason working at repairing a wall of the church.

But then there are only 594 people and given it was the summer holidays I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised.  

Through an entrance, 2024

A century and half ago I suspect many of the adults would have been engaged in the fields along with some of the children and others would have been about chores in their homes, making an equally quiet place.

Alternative horizons, 2024

And quiet it was all of which added to the magic of the place, but then I wasn’t a local in my teens wondering how to pass the long days a full sixteen miles away from Leicester.

But I wont end on a down note, because My Wkipedia also tells me that "Hallaton Hall and its lands were owned by Calverley and Amelia Jane Bewicke in 1845. 

Their daughter was the writer and campaigner Alicia Little. 

As the site of two markets Hallaton was despite its size regarded as a town, even if one of little significance".

The church yard, 2024

And so I should perhaps correct my description of the place as a village and  reinstate it as a town, along with saying "Alicia Little or Mrs Archibald Little (1845 – 31 July 1926) was a British writer and a campaigner for women's rights and later against foot binding in China".**

Not bad for a place of just 594 people.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; Hallaton, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hallaton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallaton

**Alicia Little, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Little

A quiet day in Hallaton with a war memorial

This is the war memorial in the village of Hallaton.

The memorial, 2024

We came across it on a hot sunny day as we made our way through Leicestershire to the Cotswolds.

It was one of half a dozen we encountered, and the sheer number in what was a short journey reinforced that simple fact of how many young men died during the Great War.

Such was the suffering and profound sense of loss along with the wish to remember their sacrifice that war memorials were erected by local subscription across the country.

They come in different designs and sizes, but all reinforce the magnitude of the deaths.

More so when you compare the number killed with the size of the communities who built them.  

The 45 Sentinels, 2024

I have yet to find out the population of Hallaton in 1918, but I guess it will be a tad smaller than the 594 who were here in 2011, and that is telling given that the war memorial records the names of 41 men who from the Great War and 4 from the Second World War.

And as if to underline that loss we saw just four people on a day when nothing else stirred, save the occasional passing car and the work of a stone mason repairing the church wall.

But the community has not forgotten the men, because close by was an information board to “The 45 Sentinels” which records the site of 45 trees planted around the village for each of the fallen. “Each tree has an engraved plaque with the man’s name, regiment and date of death”. And those details are replicated again on the information board.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; the war memorials, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Adventures in Middle England …... no. 5 looking for ghosts

I say looking for ghosts but when we washed up in the village of Hallaton it was less ghosts and more just people that were absent.

The wall, 2024

The village is 17 miles from Leicester, has a fine church, a pub, a museum and a war memorial which shares the spot with the old market cross.

In 2011 it boasted a population of 594, and according to my Wikipedia is famous for the discovery of a hoard of Iron Age coins, runs a bottle kicking event and a "Hare Pie Scramble", which takes place usually on Easter Monday.*

And for those that sneer at the use of Wikipedia, I can testify that Lewis Samuel’s A Topographical description of England published in 1840 reports that “Hallaton is distinguished by a singular annual custom [when] on every Easter Monday the inhabitants meet on a piece of ground which was bequeathed to the use and benefit of the rector who then provides two hare pies a quantity of ale and two dozen of penny loaves to be scrambled for.”**

The house, 2024

And by all accounts it’s a brutal affair and once ended with a riot.  

Now after a bit of a rough and tumble the event finishes in the pub.

There is more but for that you will have to look up the details leaving me to reflect that back in 1840 the population was 664 when some might say its best days were behind it.  

It had been granted permission to have a market in 1224 but this lapsed in the late 17th century, and despite attempts to revive it in 1767  according to Mr. Lewis this “proved abortive owing in great measure to the badness of the roads, which were then nearly impassable in winter”.

Still the market cross or Butter Cross remains as a marker for busier times.  

I have to confess I had never seen one before and couldn’t quite work out its purpose.

But a trawl of Historic England revealed that “A standing cross is a free standing upright structure, usually of stone, mostly erected during the medieval period (mid 10th to mid 16th centuries AD”, and were used for a variety of purposes. *** 

The Butter Cross, 2024

That said the entry is somewhat confusing in that it describes it as a “a good example of a medieval or post-medieval Butter Cross”, but also asserts that the cross is thought to date from the 17th century, with modern repairs and refacing, and marks the location of the weekly village market”.***

The church, 2024

So, you “pays your money and takes your choice” and had we been in Hallaton at the weekend we could have also chosen to do the Museum, but we couldn’t because it was closed.

And that was a shame given that the museum’s site records that “Hallaton Museum was the inspiration of Mrs Honoria Whigham who wanted to record, for future generations, a way of life in a small village community which was rapidly changing.

To this end a great variety of artefacts were gathered to form the nucleus of an historic local collection and a display mounted each year”.****

Still, we wandered through the church yard and had a conversation with a stone mason from Birmingham who was repairing one of the walls.

Alas the pub was also closed, and in all our time in the village we encountered just four inhabitants along with a Waitrose grocery van.  

Walking the graveyard, 2024

But that was enough especially as we discovered a remarkable scheme to honour those from the village who had died in the two world wars.  I could say more but it’s a story I have already written.*****

And by then it was time to move on.

Cottages, 2024

The place remained as quiet at the end of our visit as it had at the beginning and there is nothing wrong in that.

Location; Hallaton

Pictures; walking Hallaton 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hallaton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallaton

**A Topographical description of England 4 vols, Lewis Samuel 1830-40

***Butter Cross, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017498?section=official-list-entry

****Hallaton Museum https://www.hallaton-museum.co.uk/

*****Adventures in Middle England ……… from Leicestershire into the Cotswolds …no. 1 the village, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/adventures-in-middle-england-from.html