Ravenstone

The Swadlincote Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

David KELLY has a photograph of St Michael & All Angels Churchyard on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2006.

• The parish was in the Whitwick subdistrict of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.
   
• The 1851 census for Leicestershire has been indexed by the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society. The whole index is available on microfiche. The society has also published it in print.
   
• These are the Census Piece Numbers where known:

• The Anglican parish church for Ravenstone is dedicated to the Saint Michael and All Angels.
   
• The church building dates from 1325.
   
• This chancel was restored in 1884.
   
• David KELLY has a photograph of St Michael & All Angels Church on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2006.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1705 and is in very good condition.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Repton.
   
• The Weslyean Methodists had a chapels built here in 1806.
   

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Whitwick subdistrict of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Registration District.

"RAVENSTONE, a parish in the hundreds of West Goscote and Repton, counties Leicester and Derby, 3½ miles S.E. of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, its post town, and 2½ S.W. of the Coalville railway station. The village, which is of small extent, is chiefly agricultural. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in the collieries. There are also some brick-kilns. The parish is intersected by the road from Leicester to Ashby, and the railway from Swannington to Leicester runs about a mile distant from the village."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)
Transcribed by Colin HINSON ©2003]

See also Ravenstone in Leicester.

Cris SLOAN has a photograph of the elaborate Village Sign on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2007.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• The transcription of the section for Ravenstone from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.
   
• You can also read John Marius WILSON's entry in Vision of Britain from his "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72".
   
• John BARTHOLOMEW's, "Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887)." tells us:
  
  Ravenstone, vil., Leicestershire, and par., partly also in Derbyshire - par., 1130 ac., pop. 451; vil., 4 miles SE. of Ashby de la Zouch; P.O.; Ravenstone Hall is the seat of the Fosbrooke family.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Ravenstone to another place.

Nigel ASPDIN has a photograph of the Parish Pinfold on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2009.

• An archeological excavation in 1981 found a Romano-Bristish settlement just south of the present village.
   
• 3rd century iron-smelting pits and kilns have also been found in the area.
   

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK402139 (Lat/Lon: 52.721264, -1.406265), Ravenstone which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• There is a cross in the churchyard facing Main Street that was dedicated in late 1920. The cross bears 32 names.
   
• There are two Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard. One for WWI and one for WWII.

In the churchyard:

1. John WATSON, pte. Machine Gun Corps, died 30 November 1918, age 32, husband of Edith Emma WATSON.
    
2. George Thomas GOUGH, gunner Royal Artillery, died 6 August 1941.

• The name is derived from the Old Norse Hraefnes, the name of a Saxon invader, and the suffix tun, meaning "Hrafn's farm or village".
   

Jane TAYLOR in Redcar has this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 31 October, 1804: MARRIED: "On Monday se'nnight, Mr. Wm. QUINNEY, of Ravenstone, in this county, to Mrs H. GODDARDS, of Coventry."

• This place was an ancient parish on the boundary between Derbyshire and Leicestershire and it became a modern Civil Parish when those were established.
   
• The parish was about half in Leicestershire and half in Derbyshire.
   
• This Derbyshire portion of this parish was in the ancient Repton and Gresley Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• Ravenstone was not established as a Civil Parish until December, 1866.
   
• In March, 1884, the hamlet of Snibstone in Packington, Leicestershire, was transfered to this Civil Parish.
   
• In April, 1912, this parish was reduced by 34 acres to enlarge Coalville Civil Parish.
   
• In April, 1936, this parish was reduced by 514 acres to enlarge Coalville Civil Parish.
   
• You can visit the Parish Council web site to discuss civil or political issues, but they will NOT do family history lookups for you.
   
• The Civil Parish is administered as part of Derbyshire.

• Around 1711, Rebecca and Francis WILKINS established almshouses (sometimes it was refered to as a hospital) for up to 32 poor females above the age of 50 from both Derby and Leicester. A chapel was added in 1784 and four additional buildings in 1860.
   
• The Common Lands were enclosed here in 1770.
   
• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch (LEI) petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, Ravenstone became part of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Poorlaw Union.

Woodstone Community Primary School was formed by combining two local primary schools in Snibston and Ravenstone. The school moved from separate sites to a completely new school site at the south edge of Ravenstone village just before Easter 2006.

Andrew TATLOW has a photograph of the new Woodstone Community School on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2006.