Mountsorrel is not listed in the Domesday Survey of 1086, and there is no evidence that it existed before the arrival of the Normans. The first recorded mention of Mountsorrel is in about 1148, in a charter made between the Earl of Chester and the Earl Leicester.
Unlike its neighbours in the Soar Valley Mountsorrel did not grow organically from a farming community. It was a planned, new town planted in the unsettled waste land between Rothley and Barrow.
It is likely that it originated as a settlement to provide goods and services to the castle. So from its very beginnings it was more of a commercial settlement than an agricultural one.
Mountsorrel was one of only three new towns in Leicestershire and one of only three boroughs. The other two new towns were Belvoir and Market Harborough, and the other two boroughs were Leicester and Hinckley.
Evidence of Mountsorrel’s borough status is first seen in the c. 1148 charter-“The earl of Leicester ought to receive earl Rannulf in the borough and baileys of Mountsorrel-in burgo et baliis de Muntsorel”
Many new towns were founded in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries-some like Mountsorrel as appendages to castles. They were intended to become centres of commerce with markets and fairs. And they were often given borough status, which conferred certain privileges to its leading inhabitants, the burgesses.
The privileges enjoyed by each borough varied, but typically they included the right to hold land on burgage tenure. involved money rent paid to the lord instead of the labour services demanded for rural tenure.
Towns were often laid out with a single street widening at some point to form a market place. Burgage plots were typically grouped together with one side facing the market place or main street. Land with a street frontage and close to the market was more valuable-hence the plots were long and narrow, with the narrow end facing the street. Access to the main street allowed business to be carried out. The strip of land could be used for a variety of purposes, including stores, workshops, kitchen garden and land for grazing livestock.
Mountsorrel Inferior (the north end) was granted to Stephen de Segrave by Ranulf, Earl of Chester.
Mountsorrel Superior (the south end) was granted to him by the Duchess of Windsor,Margaret de Quincey. She granted to Stephen all her land in Mountsorrel called Hunthinc, within or without the village.The yearly rent was a pair of white gloves at Easter.
Stephen’s eldest son John died without issue.His second son and heir Gilbert died in 1254 when the value of his manor, which included Mountsorrel, was assessed.
The burgage rents from the south end of the town amounted to £2 4s 9¾d a year, and for the north end £8 5s 3d. He also received one mark (13s 4d) for the mill from Hugh le Despenser
In 1292 Gilbert’s son Nicholas de Segrave, was granted a weekly market and an annual fair by Edward I
Mountsorrel was taxed as a borough from 1315 and in 1334 the tax assessment was 40s
There were 167 taxpayers in 1377 compared to Loughborough which had 360 taxpayers
In 1586 William Camden commented “Mountsorrel now is famous onely for a mercate there kept”
This is very interesting. Thank you.
Grew up i Mountsorrel, never knew it was so old.