Peatling Magna Explained

Official Name:	Peatling Magna
Civil Parish:	Peatling Magna
Population:	210
Population Ref:	(2011 Census)
Country:	England
Region:	East Midlands
Os Grid Reference:	SP593930
Post Town:	LEICESTER
Postcode Area:	LE
Postcode District:	LE8
Constituency Westminster:	South Leicestershire
Shire District:	Harborough
Shire County:	Leicestershire
Coordinates:	52.5322°N -1.1263°W
Static Image:	Peatling Magna.jpg
Static Image Width:	240px
Static Image Caption:	Corner of Main Street and School Lane, Peatling Magna

Peatling Magna (also once known as “Great Petlyng” and later as “Great Peatling”) is a village in Harborough district, south Leicestershire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 210.^[1] It lies 3.7 km north-east of Ashby Magna and 2.9 km north-north-east of Peatling Parva.

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.^[2]

Medieval notableness

• In 1265, Peatling Magna stepped onto the national stage when, after the battle of Evesham, 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”.^[3] 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.”^[4] 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.^[5]
• 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.) ^[6]

Further reading

• Helen Cam (1962). Lawfinders and Lawmakers in Medieval England. Merlin.

External links

• • Web site: Geograph photographs around village.
• Web site: Parish Profile 2001.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Civil Parish population 2011. 19 June 2016. Office for National Statistics. Neighbourhood Statistics. 11 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161011181818/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11127442&c=Peatling+Magna&d=16&e=62&g=6444727&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1466346285090&enc=1. dead.
2. Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the North. London: Collins; p. 170
3. M. Wood, In Search of England (2011) p. 253
4. D. A. Carpenter, The Reign of Henry III (1996) p. 336
5. R. Wickson, The Community of the Realm (Longman 1970) p. 33
6. Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II Volume 2 (1381 - 1385) p.479