This page is to provide readers with some history of the Rearsby Village & surrounding areas

The community of Rearsby are extremely proud of its history which stretches back to medieval times, boasting an 13^th century church at the heart of the village. The doomsday book of 1086 records the village when the packhorse bridge was originally a wooden structure but was rebuilt in its current mainly granite form in 1714 and still allows a pedestrian crossing of the brook which is situated in the conservation area within the village centre. This area also sees a working farm across the historic ford of the brook, which is lined along its banks by 24 mature willow trees. The farm is grade 2 listed and described as Manor Farm and Outbuildings with Barn, Pigeon House and the Mud wall. In addition to the Church as a place of worship there is the old Wesleyan Methodist Chapel (now converted to business premises) on the main road through the village and evidence of a peaching stone that Wesley himself preached from, to members of the village in 1753. Along the same stretch of road can be found a number of grade 2 listed Alms houses dating back to 1862, originally constructed by the local Pochin family.

A Brief History of “The Convent” in Rearsby.

The Sacred Heart Convent, Rearsby, (known locally as “The Convent”) was originally built for a family named Hollingworth in1883. It was called Church Leys House and has had a variety of occupants during its existence and this account attempts to track some of its history. It is now in the hands of developers who are carrying out works to convert it into private apartments and also to erect some detached houses within the grounds.

Rearsby Village School in its Early Days…. 

For the greater part of the nineteenth century most of the rural population was illiterate, and not many children were fortunate enough to receive an education. Early records are sketchy, but in 1818 three poor children in Rearsby received instruction from a schoolmistress who was paid £1 per annum from the Faunt’s Gift charity, these children were selected by the Rector. Other children may well have walked daily to the school in Syston, or attended a dame school in the village. Dame schools were small private schools for young children run by women; such schools were the precursors of nursery, or infant, schools in England. They existed in England possibly before the 16th century in both towns and rural areas and survived well into the 19th century.

Rearsby and the Syston & Peterborough Railway

During the first half of the nineteenth century Rearsby was a bustling and thriving community which was predominately involved with arable farming, but there was a range of livestock as well.  The fields produced large crops of wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, beans and turnips. The village was able to supply most of its needs from its inhabitants and there were several shops and a smithy, and different tradesmen plied their businesses mainly from home. The Melton Navigation exported produce and imported heavy goods like coal, stone, timber and lime. The turnpike from Leicester to Melton was a busy thoroughfare and apart from local traffic supported the passage of well over two thousand stage coaches each year. Several times a day teams of horses would enter the village in both directions and stop at one of three coach houses, often to change horses, and to load and unload passengers, goods and service the daily mail.

The River Wreake and its Influence on Rearsby History

The River Eye rises at Bescaby on the fringe of the Vale of Belvoir near the Leicestershire/Lincolnshire border. The confluence of the River Eye, Thorpe Brook and Scalford Brook occurs at the eastern edge of Melton Mowbray close to Sysonby Lodge to become the River Wreake, which then flows from east to west through the centre of the town. The width of its floodplain varies from about 70 metres at Melton Mowbray to about 700 metres at Thrussington and towards Rearsby in the lower reaches.

The Rearsby Bypass Story

The Melton Road linking Leicester and Melton is the communication lifeblood of the village and part of a major traffic route. Unfortunately, before Rearsby was bypassed, it also brought heavy traffic,fumes, dirt and noise. The local village school and houses on the main road in Rearsby were adjacentto the A607 and they had to keep their windows closed most of the time due to noise and fumes fromthe volume of traffic. Some properties along the road had frontages less than 1.2 metres from the kerbedge. The exit roads onto the main road were dangerous due to poor visibility and speeding traffic.The constrictions in the main road as it weaved through the village were a dangerous obstacle fortraffic, and some heavy goods vehicles had to cross the central white lines into the path of ongoingvehicles to negotiate the most dangerous blind bend. Accidents and incidents were common place.
 This is the story of the ultimately successful efforts of the people of Rearsby to obtain the bypass thatwould return this road, and the village, back to a quiet, rural traffic-calm state that hadn’t existed sincethe 18th century and also once more reunite the south east side of Rearsby with the rest of Rearsby.