Appleby Magna is a lovely English village in the Leicestershire countryside.
My U15 cricket team played there last night and we won handsomely, with my 11 and 12 year old spin bowlers bamboozling the opposition. This was important to me because it preserves my 7 year unbeaten record against them. More importantly,my team were really inspired by their own performance. Well done them.
There has been a settlement at Appleby for 6000 yars, since Neolithic times. There is evidence of Roman settlement, and both Saxon and Norman presence in the village.
The village name "Apleby" was mentioned in the Domesday Book where it was said to belong in part to Lady Godiva, she of naked on horseback fame. The addition of Magna, meaning Great, was a medieval affectation.
The De Appleby family were lords of the manor from the 12th century intil the 16th century. The end of their fiefdom came about when Sir George de Appleby was killed at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh (The last pitched battle between English and Scottish armies) and his wife Joyce was burned at the stake as a protestant martyr in nearby Lichfield. Since those turbulent days, life appears to have been more sedate in Appleby Magna. Until Kegworth Town CC U15s spin bowlers wreaked havoc yesterday!
Today, Appleby Magna is a pretty little village of 1000 or so inhabitants, which is largely the same as recorded in the 1801 census, when it was recorded as 935.
@sabine Indeed Sabine, thank you. Somehow, a thrashing by my team from Kegworth will not be written into the village history. I may have to put a Wiki page up......
Oh I just love British history! It has always been a passion of mine - perhaps in another life I was a Brit ;) Congrats on a game well played! Always good to keep the record alive!!
@jillmstruss Well you may well have been. Thanks for your congrats, I tell them always to have fun and do their best, but I am always a little bit taller when they win and I've had a hand in coaching the win....
@fannyb Haha. Not for anyone whose concentration may wander, but a wonderful relaxing way to spend a day....I am at Lord's on saturday, but scoring will interfere with the gentle imbibing of a very fine bottle of red wine...Thanks for looking, sweet of you.
There are such fascinating names around - I like your history lesson too! I see you're near Kegworth - we used to visit The Otter to feed my son up with a Sunday lunch!
@elsbels Blimey, that's close. My wife is from Hathern (we were married there), we live in East Leake, I coach cricket in Kegworth.. We get to the Otter every now and then.
@seanoneill my son lived at Clifton so we could find our way to The Otter easily and so managed to avoid going to the city centre with the one way streets and trams!
