Category: Local History

Benchmarking is a global practice, but in the UK at least, these symbols were made by officials from the Ordnance Survey and were often carved onto public buildings or structures that were expected to stand the test of time and be around for many years to come, enabling future surveyors to use them as a reference point for elevation. You’ll most often find them on town halls, railway bridges, churches or stone gateposts. However, like many other things, benchmarking eventually became an outdated practice, superseded by GPS and other digital technologies.

On Tuesday 26 March volunteers from  the Hallaton Fieldwork Group (it’s this group who previously discovered the Hallaton Hoard (which currently has pride of place in Harborough Museum) visited with their specialist equipment.

Soon after Kibworth railway station opened in 1857, discussions started to consider establishing a gas company in the village. A company was formed with the Rev F. Islip as chairman. Kibworth Gas Light & Coke Company started to supply customers on Thursday 23 October 1862 at a site on New Road, next to the railway bridge. £1,240 of the initial capital invested of £2,000 was subscribed by parishioners.

Chronicle reader, George Keeping, has been sent photographs of St Helen’s church at Gumley showing some of the protruding faces (fourteenth century, it is believed) that decorate the lucarnes (little dormer windows) of the spire. George writes that these carving stick out on long ‘stalks’ are very unusual and may even be unique in Leicestershire and Rutland – they must be prone to erosion.

Gumley Hall, demolished in 1962, employed many people during its heyday. The Hall used to stand to the east of the church with a lake behind, which is still there but is private property. There was no electricity in the village until 1931, but the owners of Gumley Hall made good this deficiency by generating their own supplies. In the small factory-like building with a large chimney-stack south of the church, Captain Whitmore produced gas in the late-19th century, and Mr Murray Smith in the early 20th century converted the installation to produce electricity.

When compiling the article, Gumley Hall History, regarding the lost stately house we all know as Gumley Hall the Kibworth Chronicle, as a matter of courtesy, sought the relevant permissions to use the image from the owner from Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand as this is copyrighted.