Please note: Family pages are organised by surname; however, this does not mean that all those people featured are related to each other. Where possible we will try to be clear about any connections there may be.
1734: Leicester Chronicle 25th September 1869
Westly’s Gift: Joseph Westly, by will, dated 23rd April 1734, and proved at Melton Mowbray, devised to his nephew John Daft, and his heirs, a close of pasture ground in Hickling, called Case Lane Close, charged, amongst other payments, with one of £10 to the minister and churchwardens of Stathern, the interest of which the testator directed should be applied at their discretion towards the maintenance of a schoolmaster in that parish. The £10 has never been raised, but the owner for the time being of the close charged which contains 2a.2r., has paid 10s yearly to the parish schoolmaster, in augmentation of his stipend. John Corner is the present owner of the close.
Old School Books
Mike Nichols shared a handful of pages with us from old Hickling school books;
- from Herbert Woolley’s composition book dated
- and from John Corner’s mathematics book.
Mike wrote: “I am sorting a few things out . Wonder if this is of interest. It is out of an old school book from Hickling . The compositions are dated and cover various subjects . Same pen wrote the date so it was not added later. This one Dec 9th 1887. Several are signed by Herbert Woolley . He was born 1873 so was 14 at the time . Living at Barland’s farm . One of his compositions is a letter to his father saying what he wants to be on leaving school . Answer was “a Butcher” which he duly became with the village butcher, later at Upper Broughton and then farmed Barlands.”
“Not very plain but the book dates from 1841. this time a Hickling lad, John Corner b 1829 … so he was 12 at the time . His father Septimus was a Shoemaker , lived in Top End in a house which faces Broughton . That’s according to Fred Dickman . Fred inherited a grandfather clock from Septimus , 200yrs old then and when Septimus inherited it it was too tall for his house so he dug a hole in the kitchen for it . The base was rotten when I saw it at at Clawson. Can’t do justice to the elaborate letters in the maths book but you will get the idea . Bet you couldn’t short change them .”
