Croxton Kerrial and Branston - About the Parish Council

Description of villages/location/history The Parish Council is made up of six elected councillors from two wards within the Borough of Melton Mowbray. The Croxton Kerrial ward has four councillors and the Branston ward has two councillors. Croxton Kerrial and Branston are two neighbouring villages in the north eastern part of the Borough of Melton Mowbray and situated in the County of Leicestershire. Croxton Kerrial is situated almost mid-way between the towns of Grantham (six miles) and Melton Mowbray (10 miles) beside the A607 trunk road. Branston, a smaller village, is about two miles to the northwest of Croxton Kerrial. Much of the surrounding area is hilly, parts of Croxton Kerrial are up to 500 feet above sea level at the highest point. Branston is much lower in height. The Parish was enclosed in 1760, and much of the land surrounding the villages is arable. A dominant feature locally is Belvoir Castle, seat of the Duke of Rutland and the predominant landowner. Much of the land locally is farmed either by the Belvoir Estate or local tenant farmers. The history of the villages is closely connected to that of the Belvoir Estate, and Croxton Park to the south-west of the village was formerly a hunting seat of the Duke of Rutland built by John, the third Duke of Rutland about 1730. On the same site is the ruin of Croxton Abbey, founded about 1150, by William, Earl of Montaigne, Parcarius de Linus, and Sir Andrew Lutterel, for White Canons, or Premonstratensians, and dedicated to St. John the Evangelist. It is said that the bowels of King John, who died at Newark, were buried here. A number of ancient trackways cross the local area, one running from east to west was called the Salt Way. Salt was produced by evaporation on the Lincolnshire coast and brought inland along the Salt Way throughout the Bronze, Roman and Middle Ages. Half a mile to the east of Croxton Kerrial at the county boundary with Lincolnshire and running from north to south and crossing the Salt Way at the Three Queens is a trackway known variously as The Mere, Shire Street, The Drift and The Viking Way. It linked the towns of Newark in the north and Stamford to the south. The name Three Queens is said to refer to the burial barrows of three queens of the Bronze Age. On the border with neighbouring Saltby parish are three other barrows near King Lud's entrenchments, the entrenchments being possibly part of a tribal boundary of the Bronze Age. The Salt Way was probably a link road in Roman times with Ermine Street and the Fosse Way. For further information try link http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~framland/Ag/maps/cke.htm