Workhouse Lane and the Coleorton Workhouse
The lane in Coleorton leading from The Moor down to the Ashby Road is known today as Moor Lane, but this was not always so, it was once known as Workhouse Lane. I am told by an old Coleorton resident that this name change occurred in the 1960s in response to some villagers, including the Women’s Institute, campaigning for a less down market name. During this period as part of the same campaign the name of Pit Lane was ‘upgraded’ to Pitt Lane, with the extra ‘T’ intended to perhaps imply some greater antiquity. I have also been told that the name Workhouse Lane only applied to the stretch of road from the top of Limby Hall Lane to the Ashby Road (A512). I do not believe this is correct as ‘Heather Cottage’ on this stretch was referred to as on Workhouse Lane when my grandfather acquired it shortly after the first world war. The name of the lane derives from Coleorton Workhouse. I have been told by more than one local resident that the workhouse was on the left hand side of Workhouse Lane in Dr Parker’s field, this is opposite the track leading to Mill Lane Cottage on the right hand side of the lane. Dr Parker built the property known as the ‘Observatory’ in about 1935 also during this period Henry Webster farmed this land as Dr Parker’s Tenant. I am told remains of the foundations of the workhouse were still visible at that time. However, there is a problem to my mind with this oral history tradition. Examination of the 1835 Ordnance Survey map fails to show any building in the above cited location! The 1835 map would have been compiled some time prior to its publication, so probably represents the situation 2 or 3 years prior to 1835. We know for certain that the Workhouse must have been in existence in 1834 and 1836 (see below) so its absence on the 1835 OS map at the traditional site is inexplicable! The Workhouse would have been demolished sometime after 1837 following the transfer of responsibility for its inmates to the newly built Ashby Union Workhouse on the Nottingham Road, Ashby in 18371.
So where was the Workhouse if it was not on Workhouse Lane?
Examination of the 1842 Coleorton tithe map (right) shows plot 309 at the end of Workhouse Lane’s junction with the Loughborough Road and on the opposite side of the road to the end of Workhouse Lane. Plot 309 is described as being in the ownership of Sir George Beaumont. Comprising 4 acres, 2 roods and 36 perches, it appears to contain a building (blue arrow) in the bottom right hand corner (next to the Loughborough Road) and the plot is described as WORKHOUSE CLOSE!
Examination of the 1835 OS map right also shows the same field boundary with a rectangular enclosure and indication of a building in the same position as that shown on the Tithe map (indicated by the blue arrow). I can find no further documentary evidence for this site, but examination of the site by myself and Sandra Dillon did detect brick debris in among the plough turnover. In the absence of any further evidence I am drawn to the conclusion that this (plot 309) is in fact the site of the long elusive Coleorton Workhouse.
Not just its location, but very little else is known about the workhouse, it is mentioned briefly in Nichol’s History and Antiquities of Leicester where he tells us it had places for 30 inmates. In 1776 the following advertisement appeared in The Leicester & Nottingham Journal:
Wanted a careful MAN for Master of the Workhouse at Coleorton: Also, Masters for three hearty strong Boys at the said Place.-None need apply for the said Place, or for the said Apprentices; but those who can bring unexceptional Characters, for their Honesty and Sobriety.- For Particulars apply to Henry Whirledge, Church-Warden, or John Ayre, Overseer of the Poor of the said Parish.
Again in 1781 a new workhouse master was required as advertised in the same newspaper:
WANTED A Married Man, to take upon him the care of the Poor of the Parish of Cole-Orton, in the County of Leicester. Any Person of Good Character, willing to undertake it, may apply to Tho. Ayre, Officer of the aforesaid Parish. N. B. There is Land sufficient to keep three or four Cows. Cole-Orton, April 4th 1781.
The mention of land sufficient for three or four cows is consistent with the acreage ascribed to plot 309 in the Tithe records. The workhouse was rented from the Coleorton Beaumont estate and the Beaumont Estate Rent Book for Michaelmas 1831 shows a rent of £4 10s was paid by Robert Kirby the workhouse master. Again, this is consistent with the tithe record recording Sir George Beaumont as the owner of Workhouse Close. Further mentions of the workhouse are made in the Coleorton Parish Vestry minutes as follows:
05.02.1834, resolved 'That a cow be purchased for Robt. Kirby at the workhouse' and later
03.08.1836, resolved 'That notice be given to Robt. Kirby to quit his present situation as Workhouse Master at Michaelmas next'
This last entry corresponds to the closure of the Workhouse in 1837 following the transfer of responsibility for its inmates to the newly built Ashby Union Workhouse on the Nottingham Road, Ashby in 1837.1 The workhouse was perpetuated in the old name until more modern times, but old names die hard and Terry Betts tells us that his mother Gladys, the local postwoman, was still delivering mail addressed to Workhouse Lane up until her retirement. Alan Webster also recalls mail being addressed to their farm as Workhouse Lane rather than Moor lane, long after the name change.
1. Wendy Freer, Ashby de la Zouch Workhouse and the Ashby Poor Law Union.
Terry Ward
Research Officer, Coleorton Heritage Group
First published in Coleorton Heritage Group newsletter November 2024