Diseworth is a village and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of

Long Whatton and Diseworth Long Whatton and Diseworth, formerly just Long Whatton is a civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The parish includes the villages of Long Whatton and Diseworth. The population of the parish at the 20 ...

, in the

North West Leicestershire North West Leicestershire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Leicestershire, England. The towns in the district include of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Castle Donington, Coalville, Leicestershire , Coalville (where the council is b ...

district, in the English county of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. It is south of

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is to the south and Lincoln, England, Lincoln northeast. It serves the maj ...

and off Junction 23A of the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

. A village of some 670 residents, it is located 14 km to the north-west of Loughborough and 2.5 km to the south-east of

Castle Donington Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport. Etymology The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another su ...

. The settlement is in the

, and lies within an undulating agricultural landscape and occupies a shallow valley created by the Diseworth Brook as it flows eastwards before becoming Long Whatton Brook and proceeding to its confluence with the River Soar. The four principal streets of the village - Grimes Gate, Hall Gate, Clements Gate and Lady Gate - meet at The Cross; a staggered crossroads close to the Church of St Michael's and All Angels. Page Lane runs parallel to Lady Gate. The Green running along the southern edge of the settlement gives access into Hall Gate - via The Bowley -and into Lady Gate. Diseworth Brook flows to the south of Hall Gate and is joined by tributaries to the east of Shakespear Close and near Town End. The famous astrologer and occultist,

William Lilly William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most imp ...

was born in Diseworth on 1 May 1602.

Diseworth Heritage Trust

The Diseworth Heritage Trust is a charitable trust, registered in the UK (No. 1112223) that is dedicated to preserving the historical and architectural heritage of the village of Diseworth in

, England, and its surrounding area, from its earliest origins to the present. The Trust was responsible for the restoration of the redundant

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Chapel building in Diseworth (originally built in 1752, and therefore one of the oldest in the county), as a local

Heritage centre A heritage centre, center, or museum, is a public facility – typically a museum, monument, visitor centre, or park – that is primarily dedicated to the presentation of Historical preservation, historical and Cultural heritage, cultural infor ...

, which will provide a variety of facilities for education and entertainment. This was made possible by sponsorship from local and national organisations, including the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The Trust welcomes members with a general interest in

local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural history, cultural and social history, social aspects of history. Local history is not mer ...

, as well as those directly associated with the village. The Trust works closely with the Diseworth and

Long Whatton Long Whatton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Long Whatton and Diseworth, in the North West Leicestershire district, in the Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England, English county of Leicestershire. It is ...

History Societies, and other organisations to develop interest in local history.

Diseworth's history

The village's name means 'farm/settlement of Digoth'. Archaeological evidence shows that the site of Diseworth was inhabited in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

and

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

periods. Its position in a sheltered valley next to the brook is a classic setting for early settlement, and the development of

farmsteads A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

. Diseworth has had many variations on its name, but almost always with the suffix 'worth', meaning enclosed settlement. At the time of the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

, Diseworth was sufficiently important to be part of an award to a Norman knight, and appear in the

Domesday book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

William Lovett William Lovett (8 May 1800 – 8 August 1877) was a British activist and leader of the Chartist political movement. He was one of the leading London-based artisan radicals of his generation. Biography Early activism Born in the Cornish tow ...

held some 360 acres in Diseworth, although his tenure did not last for long. By the early 12th century, land around Diseworth was held by the Earls of

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

and

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, and by Robert de Ferrers. Many disputes over the ownership of the land followed in the period up to the late 15th century, when in 1487 the estate was declared the property of Sir Henry Colet. The nearby Langley Priory had exercised considerable control over the parish church and the villagers, many of whom worked for the nuns. Benefactors who donated land to the Priory often chose land in Diseworth. Shortly before the dissolution of the Priory, along with other religious properties and land in England,

Margaret Beaufort Lady Margaret Beaufort ( ; 31 May 1443 – 29 June 1509) was a major figure in the Wars of the Roses of the late 15th century, and mother of King Henry VII of England, the first Tudor monarch. She was also a second cousin of Kings Henry ...

, mother of Henry VII, purchased a considerable part of the village to found what became Christ's College, Cambridge. For the next five hundred years Diseworth was dominated by the owners of Langley Priory estate and Christ's College, and saw the villagers paying rent to either the Reverend Gentlemen of Christ's, or the new owners of Langley: first the Grays, then the Cheslyns and then the Shakepears. The college sold their interest in Diseworth in 1920, but there remain a few farms and houses still owned by landlords. In 1931 the parish had a population of 345. On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished and merged with Long Whatton. Today, Diseworth is still notable for having several active farms contained within the village itself, although its proximity to

has very recently placed it under threat from industrial development that threatens the very character and setting of the village.

Notable people

, astrologer

References

External links

Diseworth Website

Diseworth Heritage Centre

Diseworth Village Hall
* {{coord, 52.81527, N, 1.33377, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SK450244), display=title Villages in Leicestershire Historic preservation in the United Kingdom Charities based in Leicestershire Former civil parishes in Leicestershire North West Leicestershire District