Burbage, Leicestershire

Burbage is a parish in Leicestershire in the United Kingdom. It is part of the Hinckley urban area.

History

Leofric, Earl of Mercia, gave the village of Burbage to Coventry Abbey in 1043, which was valued at two shillings. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 its value had risen to £4. There were 1¼ hidess of land (around 150 acres) with 2 ploughs. Twenty villagers held two smallholdings, with two slaves and eight ploughs. Burbage also had a meadow, measuring a furlong in length and width (approximately 220 square yards). Half a league of woodland, four furlongs wide also belonged to the village. In 1564 the diocesan returns show a population of 57 families within Burbage and 6 at Sketchley. Burbage, for many centuries a small farming community, remained very thinly populated. In the census of 1801 there were 1098 inhabitants. It was not until the twentieth century that the population in exceed 2000. By 1953, the population had risen to 3.983, whilst in 1958 there were more than 5,000 on the electoral role; this rapid growth is largely due to the expansion of Sketchley Hill housing estates.