Sibson was haunt of Dick Turpin...
In 1739, he was arrested and taken to York Castle to await trial for horse stealing and then was soon identified as Dick Turpin, the notorious murderer and highwayman.
He was tried in York on March 1739 and was convicted. Turpin was then hanged at York in public on 7th April 1739 and buried in St George’s burial ground.
The parish church at Sibson is dedicated to a Saxon, St Botolph who was Abbot of Ikenhoe in East Anglia in 654AD. The church is known to have been in existence in 1154 and may have been a wooden structure.
St Boltoph was Benedictine or a Black Monk and 70 English churches are dedicated to him including two in Leicestershire.
In 1724, at two o’clock in the morning, a terrible disaster occurred at the church when a gale blew down its steeple, which crashed onto the nave and almost demolished it.
The nave is thought to have had three aisles, and the sough chapel was built by Sir Roger Corbett and his wife Amice in the reign of Edward II. These were all destroyed together with royal arms and family tombs.
It was rebuilt by the famous architect Francis Smith of Warrick at a cost of £800. The tower was rebuilt in stone but the nave was completed in red brick.
The chapel is the oldest part of the building, dating from 1300, it features the sepulchral effigy of a civilian figure lying under an arched canopy, and at his feet is an animal. He is believed to have been the rebuilder of the church in the 14th century.
In the south wall of the chancel are the ancient piscine and three sedilia, which are three stone seats used during communion. On the sanctuary floor is a large brass memorial to Prebendary John Moore, Rector of Sibson who died in 1532.
In 1744, the four-weathered vanes were erected on the tower and were paid for by a special parish levy. The clock was made by the well-known Leicestershire clock maker Samuel Deacon of Barton in the Beans in 1789, and is still working.
Until recently the clock was wound daily by hand but now it is wound electrically. The weights are two large stones with lead added to adjust the weight.
The tower contains four bells which are dated 1605, 1733, 1751 and 1779. The Curfew bell, which had hitherto been rung nightly, ceased to be rung at the start of World War II. The chancel is noticed for its large east window which as ‘Y’ tracery but contains no coloured glass.
On the east side is a small window which was believed to have been used by lovers who were not allowed to enter the church.
In the churchyard are many lovely Swithland slate headstones the earliest dating back to 1700. On one stone the village of Upton is spelt “Oupton”.
The National School was built by Earl Howe in 1839 and the first stone was laid by Queen Adelaine, wife of William IV.
The school is closed now and the village children attend the school at Sheepy Magna.
In 1916, the countess of Lovelace offered for sale all her estates in Sibston and Wellsborough and it was then the land came into private ownership.
Earl Howe was the major land owner until 1919 when financial difficulties forced him to dispose of his entire estates.
Wellsborough The little village of Wellsborough, which is situated three miles south of Market Bosworth, is steeped in history.
It consisted of 1,250 acres of land and was anciently owned by the Wellsburghs family from which its name derived.
In 1185, it was known as Wethelsberne and in 1300 it had changed to Whelesbergh. In 1450 it was finally resolved as Wellsborough, when it was owned by the Noel family.
A small part of Wellsborough called Temple Hall was extraparochial as it had been given to the Knights Templar by one of the Earls of Leicester. The Knights Templar was a military order founded in 1118 after the capture of Jerusalem during the first crusade to defend it from the Muslims.
The Templars rose in influence and wealth until they had settlements in every county in Christendom. They built several castles which were both monasteries and barracks until the order was finally suppressed by Pope Clement V in 1312. At the present time, Temple Hall Farm is situated near this site. People associated with this cult usually adopted the surname of the Temple.
Peter Temple of Wellingsborough who was MP for Leicester signed the death warrant of Charles I. When George Isaac MP was Secretary of the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants (NAPSOPA), he saw the place of his dreams which was a sight for a home for members of the society and also retired ones.
It was form this that the NAPSOPA Homes at Wellsborough came into being. It was opened in 1920 by Lord Northcliffe in memory of members who had lost their lives in World War I.
Upton The village of Upton contained 1270 acres of land, and ancient records indicate that it was originally known as Oupton.
It was from this small village that the famous Upton Herd of Longhorn cattle was established. For over a century members of the Chapman family at Upton Lodge farm bred Longhorn cattle which Robert Bakewell said: “Chapman’s herd was a good as any in the kingdom”.
Chapman hired Bakewell’s world famous bull “Twopenny” which sired many of his prize winning animals, from the year 1850-1872 prizes were won at 10 Royal Shows including two firsts when the Royal Show as held at Leicester in 1868. The herd was dispersed in 1873.
It is believed that a chapel once existed in the village but no remains of it are now visible.