Yards in the North End of Mountsorrel

Yards in the North End of Mountsorrel numbered thirteen. They were often named after the occupier of the house at the entrance to the yard, or the owner. So over the years the names of the yards often changed. Two yards remain with the original houses -Greens Yard and Black Horse Yard.  A new house has been built in Post Office Yard.

The following yards were in the North End of the village.

Post Office Yard (Old Post Office Yard, Priors Yard)          

 Peets Yard (Potters Yard, Garrets Yard)

Hurds Yard (Spencers Yard, Neals Yard, Mt Heads Yard)     

 Greens Yard (Grundys Yard)

The Rookery (Pleasant Row))

Red Lion Yard

Cowdells Yard

Wilmores Yard

Lynhams Yard (Castledines Yard)

Black Horse Yard (Hackneys Yard, Castledines Yard ,Spencers Yard, At  back of Elders)

Adderleys Yard

Wharf Yard (Woods Yard, Jacksons Yard)

Bamptons Yard (White Swan Yard)

The map below shows the location of the yards in the North End of the village

Post Office Yard

Starting at the Buttermarket and travelling towards Loughborough, the first of the North End yards we come to is the Old Post Office Yard. This yard was behind numbers 16 to 26 Market Place.

In the 1841,1851 and 1861 censuses it was called Priors Yard. It was named after Samuel Prior who live in the large granite house at the entrance to the yard. In 1841 he was a Tallow Chandler and before that the village constable.

He later became the postmaster, and the granite house ( 10-12 Market Place) became the post  office.The yard however remained Priors Yard.  When the new postmaster Elijah Jacques took over the name was changed to Post Office Yard.

The following description of the Post office yard is taken from an article written in the Leicester Evening Mail on 27th June 1935

This lovely corner of old Mountsorrel, known as “Post Office Yard,” is a picturesque spot, unspoiled by time.
It is a fit subject for artists. Here stand quaintly shaped and coloured old cottages, abutting on one another, peeping over one another’s shoulders.
Nearby stands an old whitewashed needle factory where steel needles for our stocking-frames were made by the man who surely was the most kindly soul who ever breathed, so good was he to the poor of the village.

Robert Pearson Jacques and his son Elijah Jacques were the needle makers.

The images below shows some of the houses in Post Office Yard just before they were demolished in 1958. Click an image for a slide show. Images courtesy of Leics County Council

Rear view 2-4 Market Place

Rear view 6-8 Market Place. The timber framed section is dated 1617. The wing on the left is early 18th century diapered brickwork.

Post Office Yard with early 18th century brick houses

Rear of 2-4 Market Place with entance to passage running under the house and opening onto the street

The old Weslyan chapel

Peets Yard

There was only one house in this yard. The building on the corner of the entrance to the yard has been a blacksmiths forge since at least 1851, the various blacksmiths being William Potter, William Garrett, Martin Smith, Joseph Hood Read and Mr E Page.It was later used as a welding shop and then as a manufacturer of glass ornaments and known as Quorn Art Glass.

Hurds Yard

The next yard we come to is Hurds Yard.It was also known as Spencers Yard (1841), Neals Yard (1861,1871) and Mt Heads Yard (1881).
The entrance to this yard was between what are now numbers 23 and 33 Loughborough Road.
The four houses once in this yard have been demolished.

The coloured houses in this 1884 map are in Hurds Yard. The house coloured red is Cufflin’s Cottage

This sketch of Cufflin’s cottage appeared in a newspaper article dated July 5th 1989, donated by Della Graham.

This photo of the Cufflin’s cottage was donated by Pat Neal

This is the text that accompanied the sketch of the cottage. But who is ‘Waterhole?’

Greens Yard (Grundys Yard)

This images shows the entrance to Greens Yard through the driveway of Rock House (55-57 Loughborough Road). This building was once the farmhouse of Joseph Cuffling.

Joseph farmed 318 acres and employed 10 men and 6 boys. In fact he owned most of the land bounded by Crown Lane, Loughborough Road, New Road and Broad Hill. He died in 1864 aged 38.

In October 1865 William Grundy bought the farmhouse and some of the land. The following month he borrowed £120, possibly to build the houses in Grundys Yard. He also turned the farmhouse into a pub called The Rock Inn. But he went bankrupt in 1869, the pub closed and the house was bought by Mr Green. The yard was then known as Greens Yard. The houses in Greens Yard are still there.

The Baum Family in Grundys Yard

The Rookery

There were 10 back to back houses in The Rookery. When they were first built they were called Pleasant Row.They belonged to Joseph Cuffling and were sold in 1881 by the executors of his will. The 10 houses in The Rookery are shown below with the blue roofs. They have all been demolished.

The Red Lion Yard

The house with the red roof is The Red Lion Inn. The 1871 census records 3 houses in the Red Lion Yard. This area is now Hugh Lupus Court.The Red Lion was purchased by the granite company and converted to a coffee house in an effort to reduce drunkenness in their workers.

Cowdells Yard and Wilmores Yard

The green triangle marks the site of seven houses, recorded in the 1841 census in the two above yards. By 1851 they had been demolished to make way for the “New Road” into the quarry.

Lynhams Yard

The next yard is across the road, next to the Anchor Inn.

There were around seven houses in Lynhams Yard . It was named after Jame Lynham, a brick maker,who lived at the entrance to the yard. It was also called Castledines Yard, no doubt after the owner, Thomas Castledine.

Black Horse Yard

There were two houses in the Black Horse Yard, which was behind the Blackhorse Inn, which closed in the early 1860’s. In the early 1900’s the house was called The Elders. It is at 62-64 Loughborough Road and is still called The Elders. The yard was also called Spencers Yard, after the landlord of the Inn, Doughty Spencer. Later it was called Hackneys Yard after Richard Hackney who lived there in 1891

Adderleys Yard

In 1841 there was one house in Adderleys Yard behind the farmhouse where Robert Adderley lived with his wife, six children and three servants. Wheat Close has replaced the farm and yard.

Wharf Yard

There were up to seven houses in Wharf Yard. It was also called Woods Yard and Jacksons yard. This shows the entrance to what was once Wharf Yard

Bamptons Yard

And finally we come to Bamptons Yard, which was behind The White Swan in Market Place.  It was named after George Bampton, the innkeeper.

Below are two images of The White Swan.