The area around Husbands Bosworth was probably first settled soon after the departure of the Romans in 409AD. when the whole of the country was in a state of flux. The Saxons invaded Britain from northern Germany and pushed far inland.

 

This area would have been viewed as prime agricultural land with it's rich, loamy, free-draining soil, gently rolling countryside and plentiful water supplies.

The word "worth" derives from the Saxon word for farm or clearing, and Baresworde, the earliest recorded name for the settlement possibly denotes Bar's farm or settlement. Likewise Theoda settled land to the east which became Theddingworth, and Cyfel went west to settle Kilworth.

When the Danes invaded in the 800's they too came to the local area, and settled close to the established Anglo-Saxon villages. From the place-name endings we know that the Danes were at Shearsby, Arnesby, Lubenham, Bruntingthorpe and Walton.

All these settlements were well established at the time the Normans invaded and over-ran the country in 1066. William the Conqueror divided his new territory up into easily controlled estates by giving lands to his faithful knights. We know from Bosworth's entry in the Domesday survey commissioned by William in 1086 that manors or fees in Bosworth, along with lands in other areas were allocated to four of William's trusted knights.

By 1130 much of the Bosworth lands had passed to one Robert Fitz Ansketil, a Norman lord, who had established a holding big enough to justify living on-site! With the permanency afforded to the settlement at this time came the building of the first church. By 1220 the village had expanded to such a degree that it could afford to build and support a stone church, and parts of the present church date back to this time. The body of the church was altered and rebuilt in the 1300's and the existing church tower dates from this time.

There is evidence in field marks and earthworks to suggest that the original settlement, or possibly a parallel settlement, existed to the west of the present village to the north of the Kilworth Road. That there are no solid remains apart from the undulations in the pasture would suggest that this settlement was abandoned at a time before substantial buildings were being constructed. The site may have been superseded by a better plot, amalgamated by marriage or ownership, or abandoned as unclean after the Plague in the mid 1300's.

By 1531 parts of Bosworth had passed into the hands of the Dixie family who also owned land in another place called Bosworth some 30 miles to the west. It was possibly at this time that the need arose to differentiate between the two places. The larger market town became known as Market Bosworth while the smaller farming village became Husbandmen's Bosworth; the farmer's Bosworth.

The articles on this page are based on research by members of the Husbands Bosworth Historical Society.

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