All historical records prior to 1980, are now lodged at the Leicestershire County Records Office, which is open to the public at: Leicestershire County Records Office Telephone: 0116 257 1080Genealogical Information
Research your family tree.
Long Street
Wigston Magna
Leicester
LE18 2AH
Email: recordoffice@leics.gov.uk
Information is available on all the gravestones in the Church graveyards (see below). Further enquiries can be addressed to:
St James the Great
Church Hill
Birstall
Leicester
LE4 4DJ
Tel: 0116 267 1797
email: stjames.birstall@btconnect.com
In the churchyard, particularly close to the church are several interesting gravestones. There are several Swithland slate memorials. Amongst them are:The Churchyard of St James the Great, Birstall
Richard Porter 1798 and Mary 1801. He was a small farmer whose son Thomas, owned Birstall Workhouse cottages which stood on the site of Libra Parade.
Robert Brewin 1860 Of Birstall Hall. Prominent Leicester industrialist. Mayor of Leicester, reforming politician, introduced universal elementary schooling to Leicester.
Lizzie Broughton 1881. Burned to death while using paraffin to light a fire in the White Horse Public House.
William and Elizabeth Cowldershaw 1816/20. An interesting inscription!
Reader where e’er thou art whilst looking round
And view the sculptured stones and burial ground
Reflect, prepare, while thus your fate you view
Who next must die? Uncertain? Why not you.
The Crisp Clarke family. 1905,1913,1935. They were Birstall’s last Lords of the Manor and had a hosiery factory in Belgrave. Birstall Hall was demolished after they sold it in 1923.
Thomas Fielding Johnson 1931. of Goscote Hall. Industrialist and philanthropist. In the grounds he created the finest private cricket ground in the Midlands.
Mary Harrison 1960 A greatly loved district nurse who delivered countless Birstall babies.
Ann King Woodcock 1765 Widow of Joseph. He was an overseer of the poor who collected the Poor Rate from unwilling villagers for the upkeep of the Birstall Workhouse.
John Land 1699. He gave the five roods of land which was the origin of today’s Land and Lewis charity.
Nathan Tuffley 1792. The Tuffleys were once the most prosperous yeoman farmers in
Birstall, (one became Mayor of Leicester). Their land and money dwindled owing to bad
luck and bad management. Nathan, the last of the line, died bankrupt.
William Turlington 1698. Mary 1715. He and his brother farmed jointly in Birstall and Thurmaston. After a family row they parted, William keeping the Birstall land whilst his brother kept the Thurmaston land.
The Went family. Canon James Went. 1936. He was headmaster of Wyggeston School for 41 years, 1877-1919. He lived in The Cottage, Birstall Road, and was a very familiar figure about the village. The grave is behind the church office, sadly in a dilapidated state.
Robert Bradshaw 1884. The Bradshaws were the village shoemakers. At the same time they kept the Marquis of Anglesey, a common beer house on the corner of Netherhall Lane. When it closed they opened the original Earl of Stamford, then the building next to Square Yard.
The While Family. Thomas While 1844. The Whiles were yeoman farmers living since the C16th in their farmhouse, The Netherhall on Whiles Lane. Thomas was a magistrate and close friend of John Mansfield of Birstall Hall (q.v.) Elizabeth was his daughter . Six of his children are also buried in the churchyard. The seventh emigrated to America. Elizabeth. 1907. was the last of the Birstall Whiles. She sold The Netherhall and built a new house, The Elms, on Birstall Road. She left all her property to her solicitor, William Salisbury (q.v.), on condition that he adopted the Whiles name.
William Llewellyn Salisbury While 1924. Elizabeth While’s solicitor. He took her name and inherited the estate.
John Hannah VC. 1945 He was one of the youngest people to be awarded the VC for his bravery in the RAF.
William Brockington 1st Director of Education for Leicestershire.
