Peatling Magna (also once known as “Great Petlyng” and later as “Great Peatling”) is a village in
Harborough district, south
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 ...
. The population of the
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 ...
at the 2011 census was 210. It lies 3.7 km north-east of
Ashby Magna
Ashby Magna is a small English village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire. The parish has a population of 294, increasing at the 2011 census to 347. It is in the west of the district, and lies midway between junct ...
and 2.9 km north-north-east of
Peatling Parva
Peatling Parva is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district, south Leicestershire, England. It lies 2.6 km west-north-west of Ashby Magna and 2.9 km south-south-west of Peatling Magna.
The village is recorded in the Dom ...
.
Church
The church of All Saints is mainly of the 14th and 15th centuries and contains some fine examples of carved woodwork of different periods.
Medieval notableness
*In 1265, Peatling Magna stepped onto the national stage when, after the
battle of Evesham
The Battle of Evesham (4 August 1265) was one of the two main battles of 13th century England's Second Barons' War. It marked the defeat of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and the rebellious barons by the future King Edward I, who led t ...
, the villages refused to co-operate with men of the victorious royal forces, on the grounds that the latter were “going against the welfare of the community of the realm”. The fracas which followed eventually led to the village appearing in court, as recorded in the Plea Rolls of 1266, in the person of the reeve and four men as representatives of “the community of the
vill
Vill is a term used in English, Welsh and Irish history to describe a basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing.
Medieval developments
The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit ...
.”
F. M. Powicke saw the case as indicative of the penetration of communal ideas, local and national, to the smallest village level in 13th century England.
*In 1384, Peatling Magna was mentioned as "Great Petlyng" in a pardon granted to Thomas Astell, Thomas Mathew, and John Scot of "Great Petlyng" for the death of Nicholas Man of "Great Petlyng", as William de Skypwith and other justices assigned to deliver the gaol (jail) at Leicester Castle found that Astell and the others had acted in self-defence. (Just how three men killed one man in "self-defence" was not explained.)
[Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II Volume 2 (1381 - 1385) p.479]
Notes
Further reading
*
Helen Cam (1962). ''Lawfinders and Lawmakers in Medieval England''. Merlin.
External links
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Civil parishes in Harborough District
Villages in Leicestershire
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