Hallaton is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 523, which had increased to 594 at the 2011 census.[1]
The village's name means 'farm/settlement on a nook of land'.[2]
Hallaton Hall and its lands were owned by Calverley and Amelia Jane Bewicke in 1845. Their daughter was the writer and campaigner Alicia Little.[3] As the site of two markets Hallaton was despite its size regarded as a town, even if one of little significance.[4]
The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is mainly of the 13th century: the aisles were added a century later.[5] The church is sited on rising ground and has a dignified tower with a fine broach spire (one of the best in the county); the nave and chancel and aisles have nobility and beauty. The sculptured stonework of the north aisle contrasts with the plain battlemented south aisle. A former rector is commemorated by a handsome monument attached to one of the corners.[4]
The village has a famous bottle kicking ritual and "Hare Pie Scramble", which take place usually on Easter Monday.
There is a small village museum, offering history of the area. The Hallaton Treasure, a late Iron Age hoard of more than 5,000 silver and gold coins was found at a site near Hallaton in 2000.[6]
In 1736 smallpox affected the town when George Fenwick was the rector.[7]
As of 2019, Hallaton has two pubs, The Bewicke Arms on Eastgate, and The Fox, on North End.
↑Sybil Oldfield, 'Little , Alicia Ellen Neve (1845–1926)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007 accessed 9 Nov 2016Шаблон:Webarchive
↑ 4,04,1 Firth, J. B. (2026) Highways and Byways in Leicestershire. London: Macmillan; p. 227
↑Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the North. London: Collins; p. 168
↑Fenwick, George (1736) "Our souls more worth than all the world-with the use of that consideration.": A sermon preached in the parish church of Hallaton, October 31, 1736. On occasion of the small-pox breaking out there. London: printed for Caleb Ratten, bookseller in Harborough; sold by Tho. Longman
