Village with a hall of fame This is the latest of a series of articles written by popular historian Arthur Tomlin more than 25 years ago. Mr Tomlin sadly died a couple of years ago. He was extremely well-known in the area as an artist and historian
THE PICTURESQUE little village of Shenton is situated on the north side of a fast flowing rivulet which eventually joins up with the River Tweed
It is crossed by a beautiful three arched bridge which was built in 1851.
The village encompasses 1,515 acres of reasonably flat land.
In the Domesday Survey of 1086, the village was named Sheyngton before being renamed Shenketon, centuries later.
At the time of the conquest, the village was largely owned by Lord Aubrey. Later, the Ferrars family of Groby, which owned land in almost every village in the county, assumed the mantle of lords of the manor.
In 1280, Shenton, Bosworth, Carlton and Coton were collectively known as one village. When Burton published his history of Leicestershire in 1622, Shenton was owned by Sir Richard Molineux.
In 1625, the village was purchased by William Wollaston of Oncote of Staffordshire, who in the same year was appointed High Sheriff of Leicestershire and in the following year, High Sheriff of Staffordshire.
The family took their name from the Staffordshire village of Wollaston.
In 1629, William Wollaston built Shenton Hall, a magnificent mansion of brick and trimmings, made of the Elizabethan style. Successive members of the Wollaston family resided at the hall until just prior to the Second World War, when they moved to a private house in the village.
The hall soon became desolate and the grounds became overgrown until the Army took possession and 170 German prisoners were billeted there.
In 1953, Peter Hall (whose grandfather, John Hall founded the sock manufacturing firm at Stoke Golding in 1882) purchased Shenton Hall.
Mr Hall had served in the Royal Air Force during the war and was taken prisoner in Germany for two years where he helped to plan the “Great Escape”.
It was a great challenge for Mr Hall and his two sons to restore the hall to its former glory and to modernise the factory at Stoke which he purchased from his father, Frank Hall.
Everything turned out to be a success and the factory employed almost all of the residents in Stoke and “Hall’s Indestructible Socks” were exported all over the world.
In 1977 they moved premises from Stoke Golding to Hinckley, until December 2015 when they ceased production in Hinckley. It is one of the oldest firms in the county to be run by one family since its origin.
For Shenton Hall’s dining room, a magnificent fireplace was bought from Shrewsbury, along with several other fireplaces which were originally from Gopsall Hall.
Larger then life-size portraits of the Wollaston family hang on the walls but the real masterpiece is a 12ft by 5ft of a fox crossing the river, closely followed by three hounds.
The gatehouse which was originally the front entrance to the hall is also dated at 1629. This house is built of red brick and has stone dressings and a semi-circular gate arch through to its centre.
The beams throughout the building were constructed from disused timbers from old sailing ships. In the arch itself are recesses which hold oil lamps.
To the west of the hall, behind the stables is a dovecote dated at 1769. It is a square brick building with a pediment gable on each face and tier upon tier of nesting boxes.
The church is dedicated to St John and was probably built in the 13th century. Over the centuries it was terribly neglected and eventually reached such a dilapidated state, that it became beyond repair.
In 1858, the Reverend HJ Wollaston and his brother, Major T Wollaston took on the responsibility of taking down the existing church and building the replacement.
The new church was actually built by WH Knight, Cheltenham. It was built in rock faced Sydnop stone from Derbyshire with the dressings of stone from Bath. The stone from the old church was used to construct the internal walls of the new one. The total cost of rebuilding was £3,001 14s 11d.
The stone pulpit was given by the vicar but the beautiful stone reredos font and floorings came from Painswick and the oak for the roof came from Chedworth Wood in Gloucestershire.
There are several brasses in the north transept of the Everard family which date back to the 16th century.
There is a monument in the north wall, of William Wollaston and his wife Anne, which is a mural design in marble with two busts.
The tower contains three bells, the first was cast by Watts of Leicester in 1628, the second dates back to the middle of the 14th century and was cast by John of Stafford, and the third, dated 1788 was cast by Arnold, a well known bell founder in Hangmans Lane, now Newark Street in Leicester.
The church registers date back to 1625 and shows a complete record from that time. The organ was built in 1887 by J Porritt of Leicester and was moved into the chapel in 1953 with money left to the church by Mrs Dorothy Gledhill.
The beautiful carved oak pews were made by the carpenters of the Shenton estate and the stained glass in the north window contains the motto and crests of the Wollaston family, while the east and west windows were filled with stained glass by the Reverend HJ Wollaston.
The oldest church silver is a chalice believed to be of Cornish design which dates back to 1717.
In the south west corner of the nave is a monument to Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, a distinguished admiral and man of state who died in his bed at Shenton Hall in 1871.
The Parish of Shenton now encompasses the parishes of Bosworth, Cadeby, Sutton Cheney and Congerstone.
A handsome school was built in the village by Major Wollaston in 1858 which was attended by 30 scholars, but is now closed.
Not many villages of comparable size to Shenton can claim to have a first class steam railway service.
A round 1990 the Shackerstone Railway Society envisaged a scheme where by the line from Bosworth could be extended to Shenton and so attract the attention of many visitors to the Bosworth Battlefield site.
The scheme was adopted and with a great deal of preparation and hard work, the line was completed in 1993.
To enhance this ambitious project a complete station was purchased from Humberstone Road in Leicester. This 1860 Victorian building was dismantled brick by brick and slate by slate and rebuilt on the site of Shenton.
This whole project was accomplished after a huge fundraising effort.
In 1931, Shenton narrowly missed a major disaster when the Ashby-de-laZouch canal burst its banks near to the aqueduct in the village. The aqueduct is one of a small number which still remain in the country.
The canal, which is 30 miles long, was purchased by the Midland Railway Company in 1846 at a cost of £110,000. After two nights and days of torrential rain, the rivers and streams were overflowing and the canal bank gave way.
Over eight miles of the canal in the direction of Measham was drained. A number of cottages in Shenton received food through their bedroom windows from people on horseback.
One couple were woken up by a banging sound in the kitchen and were horrified to discover that water had risen up to the ceiling and it was a floating kettle that was making the noise.
One the north side of the village of Sandeford there is a large stone plaque marking the exact spot where Richard III, last of the Plantaganet Kings, was killed in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth.
In the past the village was almost self-supporting, having its own wheelwright, shoemaker and brickyard.
Sadly, one by one, the craftsmen have faded into oblivion. When the Wollaston’s purchased the village form Sir Richard Molineux in 1625, the deeds indicated that a mill existed in the village at that time.
At the present time, the village is mainly a farming community, the land still mainly owned by the Wollaston family, with the exception of Aqueduct Farm which went with the Bosworth estate.
This farm was started in 1912 by George Cash and is now run by his son-in-law, Mr Harry Lawton.
Mr R. C. Clarke came to Stud Farm in 1919 and it has remained with his family.
The life of this quiet and peaceful village revolves mainly around its magnificent church.