Burbage | |
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Burbage War Memorial |
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Burbage shown within Leicestershire | |
Population | 14,568 (2011) |
OS grid reference | SP443923 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HINCKLEY |
Postcode district | LE10 |
Dialling code | 01455 |
Police | Leicestershire |
Fire | Leicestershire |
Ambulance | East Midlands |
EU Parliament | East Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Burbage is a civil parish in Leicestershire, England. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the parish had a population of 14,324, increasing to 14,568 at the 2011 census.
Leofric, Earl of Mercia, gave the village of Burbage to Coventry Abbey in 1043. At that time it was valued at two shillings. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, its value had risen to £4. There were 1¼ hides of land (around 150 acres (0.61 km2)) with two ploughs. Twenty villagers held two smallholdings, with two slaves and eight ploughs. Burbage also had a meadow, measuring a furlong in length and width (about 40,500 square metres). The village also owned woodland half a league by four furlongs (2.2 square kilometres).
In 1564 the diocesan returns show a population of 57 families within Burbage and six 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 exceeded 2000.
During the English Civil War the village's proximity to Hinckley drew it to the attention of raiding parties from the local parliamentary garrisons in north Warwickshire. A list of claims submitted by the constables of Burbage and Sketchley to the Warwickshire county committee, in June, 1646, reveals that Captain Flower’s troop from the Coventry garrison took twenty strikes of provinder valued at £1, sent off to Stoney Stanton, and availed themselves of free quarter worth £18.10. Captain Willington's cornet from the Tamworth garrison took a mare, saddle and bridle from John Watkin, while Captain Willington's soldiers took a horse worth £5 from Thomas Bodington.(SP28/161)
Burbage was also the birthplace, in 1608, of John Cook. Cook went on to become Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of England and lead the prosecution of King Charles I for High Treason, resulting in Charles' execution and, ultimately, his own.