Lutterworth, Leicestershire

Description
Lutterworth, a small market and union town and a parish in Leicestershire. The town stands on a declivity adjoining the river Swift, 2 1/2 miles E of Watling Street at the boundary with Warwickshire, 8 1/2 SE of Ullesthorpe station on the Leicester and Rugby section of the M.E., and 8 1/2 NNE of Rugby; is noted as the place where Wycliffe lived and ministered; consists of regular streets, paved and clean; has in recent years undergone great improvement; is a seat of petty sessions and head of a county court district; and has a head post office, a bank, a police station, some good inns, and a town-hall and corn exchange. The town-hall and corn exchange stands in High Street, was erected in 1886, is a neat stuccoed brick structure with a tetrastyle Ionic portico, is used for the petty sessions, serves as a poultry and butter market, and is occasionally used for public meetings, concerts, and exhibitions. The extension (1894) of the M.S. & L.E. to London passes through Lutterworth. The church is a fine and ancient building of stone in the Early Decorated style; consists of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and lofty western tower; and contains some ancient and interesting tombs and brasses, a beautiful marble memorial to Wycliffe executed by Sir Eichard Westmacott, E.A., and an ancient oak pulpit which is in part that used by the great reformer, his portrait, and a remnant of a vestment which is said to have been worn by him. It was restored in 1867-69 under the care of the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott, E.A., and the work was completed in 1880 at a total cost of about £8000. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough; net value, £450 with residence, in the gift of the Crown. There are Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels, a Roman Catholic school chapel, and a Salvation Army barracks. The market day is Thursday, and there are cattle fairs on the first Thursday after 1 April, Holy Thursday, and the first Thursday after 15 Sept., a statute or hiring fair on the Friday after 16 Sept., and a sheep fair and statute fair combined on the Thursday after Old Michaelmas Day and the two succeeding Thursdays. The town lands, which comprise 59 acres with several tenements, produce an income of about £800 a year, and there are several ancient and valuable educational endowments which are administered by a board of governors under a scheme of the Endowed School Commissioners formed in 1874. Acreage of the parish, 2589 ; population, 1800. The manor belonged to the De Verduns, and passed to the Crown during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. In the time of Charles I. it was granted to the City of London, and through Basil Feilding (1629) to the Earl of Denbigh. An hospital was founded about 1200 by Eoesia de Verdun, and became a seat of the Suckburghs.