Editor’s notes:
These pages have been copied from John Nichols History and Antiquities of Leicestershire Volume 3 Part 1. These were written in 1800 and form a valuable source of historic information. Were possible I have translated the old English into more modern spellings to make reading easier.
Page 388, Volume 3, Part 1
Page 388, Volume 3, Part 1
Wilghes called also Willoughes, a small manor within the parish of Rakedale, is noticed in Domesday, as containing two ploughlands, which then lay waste, but were valued at twelve-pence. From that time to the present the owners have been the same with those of Rakedale.
“This manor,” says Mr. Burton in 1641, ” some time belonging to the Lord Basset of Drayton, is now the inheritance of Sir Charles Shirley, bart.; and is held by knight’s service of the manor of Weldon in Northamptonshire, now the inheritance of Sir Christopher Hatton, of Kirby in the said county, of the order of the Bath, knight.”
There stood a hamlet of the name of Willoughes in a field of about 37 acres, now called The Township, in which the sites of houses are still discernable; and a hill towards the South-west side of the close is known by the inhabitants of Rakedale by the name of the Chapel Hill. Mr. Burton, however, makes no mention of this hamlet having had a chapel.
It is now (1800) the property of Robert Earl Ferrers; but contains not a single dwelling.
The side of this lordship which joins Thrussington is separated from it by a remarkably deep ditch.
The village of Wilghes can be seen on the map just below Ragdale (Rakedale)
Map of East Goscote Hundreds from John Nichols History and Antiquities of Leicestershire
