The story of South Croxton goes back beyond its first recording in the Domesday Book in 1086, perhaps as far as 850 or earlier. Anglo-Saxon remains have been found in the moated site behind the Church, a Stone Age flint has been found in the village, and Bronze Age artefacts have been found along the Ridgemere.

The area was an obvious site to settle, at the top of a hill and with springs of fresh water. The village has been called through the ages Croxton, Crofton, Crockefstone, Crowfon Juxta Baggrave. It has been 'South Croxton' since about 1550. The name 'South Croxton' has given rise to many suggestions about its origin. An early settlement might have been by a leader called Croc, and 'tun' is a settlement. Another is that 'croc' is the Saxon for 'crooked', and the main street is a crooked one. The most probable is that it was south of the other Croxtonl to the north - Croxton Kerrial - where there was an Abbey which for a long time probably supplied the village with priests.

The ancients had many of their religious and sacrificial sites on hilltops, and the Saxons were known to have occupied pagan sites. The raised church yard (the road now skirts it) and the proportions of the church suggest that the church is originally Saxon. Prior to that there would have been a wooden church and a preaching cross, the base of which Nichols, the antiquarian, claims to have seen, but there is no sign of it now. Before Domesday the land was held by a Saxon, Godric. Domesday links all the land with the Bishop of Lincoln, and says that 'a foreigner held land'. It does not give his name, but from other documents we learn that it was Adolphus de Brachi. It was Adolphus who built the Norman Church here which preceded this one, in 1087, and gave it to the monks of Sempringham, who then transferred it to Malton Priory in Yorkshire. That church lasted about two hundred years till the present church was built in 1314., and the original Norman font was placed in it. Records from that time until recently are very scarce. Nobody rich or famous lived here and records are usually about rich or famous people, or Royalty. The one exception to this that we know of is that in the 13th.century Henry III gave the village and its lands to his Chief Minister, Hubert de Burgh (1218-1272). Nothing else is known, but it is interesting to think that the village was mentioned at that time in the highest quarters. There is a note that in 1304 'Richard and Alice Ashby held the Manor'. This would probably have been North Manor. The village, most unusually, has two manors. The South Manor (Nether Manor) was enclosed without Act of Parliament in 1757, and North Manor (Upper Lordship) by an Act of Parliament in 1794.

During the 1700s and 1800s there was a thriving cottage industry in the village, many framework knitters working for firms in Leicester. We know that in 1775 there were 100 dwellings, compared with 90 now, and in 1896 there were 340 people following 13 trades, compared with 234 now. The school opened in 1884, and was built for 60 pupils, though it was never more than half full. It closed in 1967 and became the Village Hall.

There was a major reconstruction of the church in 1925, and in 1936 it was struck by lightening, and in the reconstruction death watch beetle was discovered. Despite insurance cover and £110 raised by the villagers, £300 was left to be found. A public appeal was made, the money raised, and the major part of the restoration was completed within a year. The lamp outside the south church door, donated by the Sunday School, commemorates this.

The village became famous through the South Croxton Arts Festival. This was started in a small way in 1972, was held every other year, and gradually took over the village, with musical events at the church, and art and sculpture and music throughout the village, as well as open gardens. It ceased in 2002 when nobody could be found to organise it.

The church floodlighting was repaired and renovated ready for the Millennium. To commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002 a mini obelisk was erected half way up the hill. It is unique in that it is made up of tiles designed by children of the village, each depicting an aspect of the village as it was at the time.

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This page was last updated on : 24 April 2008