Brooksby is a deserted village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hoby with Rotherby, in the Melton district, in Leicestershire, England. It was the ancestral home of the Villiers family. Brooksby and surrounding villages were served by Brooksby railway station. In 1931 the parish had a population of 69.[1]
The name 'Brooksby' means 'farm/settlement of Brok' or 'farm/settlement with a brook'.[2]
On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished to form Hoby with Rotherby.[3]
Brooksby Hall, a 16th-century manor house, and the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Brooksby, are all that remains of a village that was cleared to enable sheep to be grazed. The church was once the living for Henry Gregg who was married to the writer Mary Kirby.[4] Today the hall has conference and banqueting facilities. Brooksby Melton College offers apprenticeships and further education training courses in animal care, countryside, equine, fisheries, and land based service engineering.
- ^ "Population statistics Brooksby AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
- ^ "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
- ^ "Relationships and changes Brooksby AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
- ^ Ann B. Shteir, ‘Kirby, Mary (1817–1893)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 15 September 2014 Archived 7 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine