In 2000 a hoard of coins, mainly from the regional Corieltauvi tribe, was unearthed by the Hallaton Fieldwork Group on a site about two miles south-west of Horninghold. This find led to the discovery of a rare open air Iron Age shrine, or ritual site, located on a ridge overlooking the Welland Valley. This site operated to around the first century AD, after which the area around it was extensively settled by the Romans. Later treasures included the helmet of a Roman cavalry officer with a cheekpiece depicting an emperor on horseback with the goddess Victory flying behind.

Horninghold itself emerged in the Anglo-Saxon period, its place name meaning the 'Wood of Horning's people', derived either from an Old English personal name 'Horn' or from a 'horn-shape piece of land'. Certainly the land to the south does create a curving ridge and the rolling countryside around still retains vestiges of former woodland.

The settlement was established in the valley of a spring-fed stream and this probably ran through its centre, in the same way as it does today, although now some of it runs along underground pipes. In 20?? a ? bone of a person of Scandinavian descent was unearthed in the area close to the bend in the stream near the current cross roads.

Horninghold is part of the Gartree Hundred administrative area. The Gartree Bush, or Gartree (possibly from the Scandinavian word geir or spear), is located north east of Kibworth on the Roman Via Devana, now known as the Gartree Road. This was the open-air meeting place from the 10th to the 18th century, where jurors, drawn from the local villages, handed out justice and administered taxes.

The Domesday survey of 1086 tells us that, prior to the Conquest, Horninghold belonged to a group of manors in the Gartree district, including Blaston and Medbourne. These belonged to four landowners who also held property around the Vale of Belvoir in north-east Leicestershire. 

Leofric is perhaps the most important of these and he is described as being from Bottesford in the Vale of Belvoir. The others were Rolf, whose main residence was at Horsey, Norfolk; Osmund Benz, whose interests were centred on Ilkeston, east of Nottingham, and Oswulf, son of Frani, a lesser landowner. The northern estates consisted of Bottesford, Barkestone, Knipton, Redmile, Harby and Woolsthorpe, all comprising the later estate of Belvoir.

After the Conquest, both groups of territory passed to Robert de Todeni, who was a member of the Tosny family from the Gaillon region in Normandy (south of Rouen). Robert is accredited with being a standard bearer at the Battle of Hastings and was rewarded with 82 manors after the Conquest. The north Leicestershire estates must have been particularly attractive, for Robert established his baronry at Belvoir, which lies at the heart of that territory.

It was common for Norman barons to found religious houses close to their seats and Robert established the Priory of Belvoir, adjacent to his residence, in 1076. Progress on the construction was slow and Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, persuaded Robert to hand over the unfinished buildings to Abbot Paul of St Albans, to become a cell of that abbey. The Paul of Caen then completed the monastery and placed four monks there.

To help fund the Priory, Robert assigned the manor of Horninghold for its upkeep, along with other estates. Blaston’s chief manor, meanwhile, came under the control of Peterborough Abbey, but unlike Horninghold, other manorial interests continued there. As was common practice, Robert chose to be buried at his foundation, this being effectively a family mausoleum. His tomb from c.1093 was relocated from the chapter house to the chapel at Belvoir when the Priory was closed at the Reformation.

Domesday tells us that Horninghold was the smallest of the Gartree settlements acquired by Robert, with 13 households and only three freemen, with a value of just 10s. Robert must have invested in it for it was worth £1 more by 1086 and this increase may have been related to the foundation of a church, though no religious building is specifically mentioned. Blaston was over twice the size as Horninghold (29 households), with a large independent group of 88 freemen, and had a value almost ten times that of Horninghold at £14 4s. Medbourne was similar in size to Blaston with an equivalent value. What is most remarkable about this is the relative decline of Blaston into the modern period.

Horninghold remained in the ownership of the Abbey of St Alban’s, via Belvoir Priory, right through to the Dissolution in 1539 and all villagers were described as tenants.

St Peter’s Church was probably added to the Priory’s assets by Robert de Todeni’s successor at Belvoir, William d’Aubigny (aka Brito), who fought for Henry I at the Battle of Tinchebray (1106), and who died around 1148. He inherited Belvoir around 1130, after the death of his mother-in-law, who had been the heir to Robert’s estates. William also gifted the church at Remile to the Priory.

William may have been responsible for the development of the church in this period. - contemporary stone fabric still survives in the form of a reset south door which contains imagery to ward off evil - see the Architecture page for more details. At this stage the church was probably just a simple building, consisting of a nave and chancel, with perhaps a bellcote.

During the period of the Anarchy in the 1140s, Geoffrey de Mandeville II, 1st Earl of Essex, established himself as a rebel bandit in the area around Ramsay and he appears to have contested Belvoir Priory’s right to Horninghold. This was probably an opportunist move against William d’Aubigny, who was a supporter of King Stephen. To resolve the dispute, Archbishop Theobald confirmed the Priory’s possession around 1151.

Horninghold had around 320 acres attached to it (three carucates) at Domesday and this land holding was confirmed in 1271. Strip farming in the open fields around the village is still evident in surviving ridge and furrow in fields off the road formerly to East Norton and in fields to the south of Hallaton Road.

The area around Horninghold and Blaston formed part of the royal forest on the borders of Leicestershire and Rutland until it was disafforested in 1235, while the royal forest of Rockingham had its northern border just five miles to the south. In an Exchequer suit of 1259 about common use of pasture, it was stated that all the places surrounding Blaston had once been part of the forest, and that after the disafforestation all men were at liberty to encroach upon the waste.

A dispute of 1289 over some land in Blaston suggests that it had been recently disafforested, while another enclosure at Horninghold is recorded in 1305. Pasture rights in the wood were clearly important and in 1417 part of the wood at Horninghold was inclosed in an agreement between Elizabeth Boyvill and Belvoir Priory.

Early woodland sites still exist along the parish boundary with Stockerston - an undated charter of John Sampson regarding ownership includes the names of Muckelborough [Michelberwe] and Bolt Wood [Boutewood].

Horninghold had no private landowners. In the tax assessment of 1381 all inhabitants were described as tenants at will and in 1408 the Prior of Belvoir asserted a right to hold court for the free tenants and the villain tenants of the manor. The nearest landed family was the de Blastons at Blaston. In the mid 13th century Robert de Blaston owned around 375 acres in Blaston and he is likely to be the son of Walter who held land there c.1220. It is possible that the late 12th, or early 13th, century cross slab grave cover found buried by the south aisle wall at St Peter’s Church was that of a member of this family, given that Blaston had two chapelries rather than a parish church -we know that Thomas de Blaston was chaplain here in 1297. However, it could easily be that of a higher status tenant from Horninghold, perhaps a grazier.

We can speculate that the population of Horninghold increased in the 13th century in that north and south aisles were added to the church to provide more accommodation. Growing prosperity is revealed by the construction of a tower and broach spire towards the end of the century. In 1254 the church was valued at six marks, corrected to ten, and at seven marks in 1291. However, this growth was curtailed by the Black Death in the following century and the decline in rural population is clear at Blaston where there were just ten households in the chapelry of St Giles by 1428. Despite this, there must have been enough money around in the 15th century to take down the old nave roof at Horninghold and build a new clerestory and a shallow-pitched roof with carved ceiling bosses.

Just to the south-east of Blaston was Bradley Priory, a small Augustinian house established by the mid-13th century, which held lands in Blaston, Slawston, Holt, and Holyoak. This was the nearest monastic site to Horninghold, but no formal connection is recorded.

The end of church ownership of Horninghold came in 1539 when the Abbey of St Albans and Belvoir Priory were closed down as part of the Dissolution - it seems that Belvoir was only supporting the abbot and one monk by this stage. The manor passed to the Crown and Henry VIII sold it to Edward Elrington and Humphrey Metcalf, who in 1545 were instructed to pass it on to John Beaumont and Henry Alycock.

The manor was subsequently forfeited and in 1553 it was purchased for £566 by Edward Griffin, whose family owned the manor of Gumley, south of Kibworth. Griffin became Solicitor General to Henry VIII and Edward IV and Attorney General under Mary I. Griffin acquired a Preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers at Dingley, Northamptonshire, which he refashioned into a house for his own use, while he also gained manorial interests at Market Harborough.

Edward Griffin’s ownership began a period of around 120 years during which Horninghold was under regional manorial control. He was succeeded by William Turpin of Knaptoft (located about three miles south west of Kibworth) who purchased the manor from Griffin’s heir in 1590. Turpin’s interest in it probably stemmed from the fact that his father, George, had already acquired land there. 

Turpin was a county gentleman of some standing, who had been Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1585-6, a role he was to repeat in 1593-4 - he was knighted in 1603. Contemporaries considered Turpin a lettered man, well versed in the humanities and he commissioned the building of a small Manor House at Horninghold, choosing a site immediately south of the church and accessed via a drive from Hallaton Road -  two stone fire-places, a mullioned window and a painted panel bearing his arms still survive in the remodelled house. However, this wasn’t Turpin’s main residence, which was the family seat of Knaptoft Hall, built in the early 16th century. Instead it was probably constructed as a dower house, for we know that Turpin’s widow held it until her death and that she passed it on to her daughter.

Turpin seems to have continued the practice of enclosing common land, which perhaps first started under Griffin. We know a dispute over land arose when a number of villagers were charged with breaking into a close belonging to Griffin, near Horninghold Wood, and pasturing beasts there. In 1607 Turpin was stated to have converted 80 acres of arable land at Horninghold from tillage to pasture and to have destroyed one farm house. When he died in 1617 he had 100 sheep grazing on his pastures at Horninghold, and it has been suggested that his inclosures (amounting to ten in 1620) were in fact more extensive. It is estimated that around one third of the village’s open fields were enclosed in this period of manorial ownership, with the remainder (around 916 acres) being swallowed up in 1730.

By the time of Turpin’s death, the annual value of his property had reached nearly £1,000 and he was able to leave his younger sons £400 apiece and his unmarried daughter £1,000. However, the manor of Horninghold remained in the possession of Turpin’s widow, Elizabeth, who was daughter of Sir Richard Fiennes of Broughton Castle (Oxon.), until 1633.

After Elizabeth died, the manor was inherited by Turpin's daughter, also Elizabeth who married Sir John Pretyman of Loddington, a village west of Kettering. Pretyman was a politician and royalist during the First English Civil War, who was present at the capture of Cirencester in 1642. Together they had four sons and four daughters. The Horninghold estate was settled upon their eldest son John and his wife Margaret on their marriage in 1649 and it appears that they came and lived in the Manor House.

John died in 1658 leaving Margaret as owner of the estate, although a draft bill of Parliament in Leicestershire Records Office, suggests the Pretymans were trying to defraud her of her inheritance. The manor became part of her dowry when she later married Sir John Heath, the second son of Sir Robert Heath of Brasted Place (Kent) and MP for Clitheroe (Lancs.) from 1661 to 1679.

Some buildings still survive from this period of Horninghold’s history and they reflect some level of investment in the estate, probably in the periods where family members were in residence at the Manor House. Although now much altered, they include the former Vicarage, the later Globe public house, Horninghold House, Orchard Farm and Midsummer Cottage.

The Vicarage was still a relatively humble dwelling. In 1634 Laurence Turnell, the vicar, complained that his predecessor (Roger Vaudry) had rebuilt it 'not in such manner as it anciently stood, but in the manner of a cottage, not being so wide as it was'. By 1650, Turnell had had enough, describing it as ‘insufficient and scandalous’. The building appears to have been part of the manorial estate for in 1645, John Pretyman was decribed as a 'delinquent' refering to his deriliction of duty in regard to it. Later the Rev Humphrey Michel, the controversial vicar of Blaston & Horninghold, refused to reside there, preferring a house in Blaston. Finally, the old property was exchanged in 1703 for a three-bay 'new well-built house' situated close to the church, with a thatched roof, barn, cattle shed and about half an acre. This must be the current Rectory and it was also part of the manorial estate.

There were some freeholders in the village, who may have built and owned property - these were listed in 1630 as Edward and John Horsepoole, John Palmer, John Pridmore, and William Chambers. However, overall the village remained small - there were 20 households in 1563 and 36 houses with hearths in 1670, accommodating 96 communicants in 1603 and 102 in 1676.

There were pockets of non-conformity and in 1672 Mathew Clark an ejected minister, was licensed to preach at Horninghold. Two houses in the village were identified as meeting houses in the early 18th century.

Margaret died in 1676 and it appears that John Heath immediately sold the Horninghold manor to Sir Edward Hungerford - he presented the living of the church to Humphrey Michel, who previously was just Rector of Blaston. Thus began a period of some 200 years during which the manor became just another asset in the property portfolio of a distant landlord. These landlords seem all to have resided in the South West, firstly in Somerset and later in Hampshire. The absence of any buildings in Horninghold from the Georgian and early Victorian periods is a testimony to a lack of investment and interest in their Leicestershire estate from its pre-occupied owners.

Hungerford’s family seat was at Farleigh Hungerford in Somerset and he served as Chippenham MP between 1659 and 1702. He was famous for his extravagance and had to sell thirty manors, including the family house, to fund his lifestyle. Hungerford died in 1711 leaving two daughters Frances, and Rachel. Humphrey Michel recorded in his diary for 6th July: ‘Sir Edward Hungerford (my patron for Horninghold) deceased; having in a few years spent an estate of 15 thousand per annum, said my Lord Rockingham's news letter’. From this it is clear that Horninghold was not one of the manors sold off to pay debts.

Humphrey Michel was a colourful old-fashioned cleric, who coming from a humble background, carried considerable resentment for the privileged local rectors and wealthy landowners, who he claimed didn’t pay the appropriate tithes due to the church. He was also a staunch Tory and supporter of the Stuart kings. His life and diary abound with conflict and he was clearly a believer in the dangers of witchcraft from his attendance and actions around a series of ‘mob’ organised ‘trials’ in 1709. More on this can be found on the Stories page.

It is not known when Horninghold was sold by the Hungerfords, but John Atkins Esq. was presenting the living in 1723 and we know that Thomas Lee Dummer was the owner in 1730. Dummer bought Cranbury Park, Hursley near Winchester around 1737 and was MP for Southampton and Newport on the Isle of Wight, the latter role being adopted by his son after his death in 1765. It was under Dummer that the last remaining open fields around Horninghold were enclosed in 1730, comprising Morfield, Eggfield, Littlefield, and Cow Pasture, containing together about 916 acres.

Thomas Dummer, the son, died without heirs in 1781, leaving his estate to his widow, Harriet, daughter of Sir Cecil Bishop, 6th Baronet of Parham, with reversion to his lifelong friend William Chamberlayne of Coley Park (Berks.).

Harriet Dummer subsequently married the artist Nathaniel Dance, third son of architect George Dance the Elder, and moved to Little Wittenham Manor (Oxon.). Dance died in 1811, but Harriet lived on to 1825 and it is only on her death that Horninghold finally passed to William Chamberlayne, the son of Dummer’s friend, of Weston Grove near Southampton, in whose family it remained until 1868. The yearly income of Chamberlayne’s estates in 1825 was estimated at £18,000.

Chamberlayne (1760-1829) served as Whig MP for Southampton and was a staunch supporter of the abolition of slavery and of parliamentary reform - in October 1824 it was reported that he had intervened to alleviate the financial difficulties of the dandy ‘Beau’ Brummel. Chamberlayne died in 1829 having been in poor health for some years and his estates passed to his unmarried sister and companion Charlotte. On his sister’s death in 1831, Horninghold was inherited by Thomas Chamberlayne (1805-76) of Charlton, Kent, his cousin once removed, who moved down to the family seat at Cranbury Park. Thomas was a keen sailor who sailed his yacht Arrow in the inaugural America's Cup race in 1851. Thomas also played cricket for Hampshire and was a great hunting and coursing enthusiast, who built both new stables and a cricket pitch at Cranbury Park.

Horninghold, with its undulating countryside and mix of pasture and woodland, was ideal hunting territory in a county renowned for the sport. An account in the Stamford Mercury in December 1843 reported: ‘... in the teeth of a tremendous west wind, over Horninghold lordship, the finest grass country in the world, with the bullock fences particularly stiff, the pace absolutely racing, nearly to the Ram’s Head … this was perhaps the fastest 20 minutes ever seen in Leicestershire’.

We know from the newspapers that in the early 19th century there were regular meets at Horninghold of the Quorn Hounds, Mr Holyoake’s Hounds and Sir Henry Goodricke’s Hounds - Goodricke, 7th Baronet, of Ribston Hall, Yorkshire, or 'Sir Harry' as he was known, was a well-known figure in the hunting world and one of the great sportsmen of the early 19th century.

This prized hunting terrain must have appealed to a rich Lancashire businessman, Thomas Hardcastle of Bradshaw Hall, for his family was to become its benefactor over a period of 40 years, during which the village of Horninghold was transformed

The Hardcastle family were successful industrialists whose roots lay in the late 18th century cotton industry in Bolton, firstly in bleaching and then cotton spinning. They went on to develop the substantial Flash Street Mills and to contribute to civic amenities, such as housing, a school, church and bank. Thomas was born in 1836, the son of James Hardcastle and Hannah Crompton Jackson, and was the elder brother of Frank Hardcastle, Tory MP for Westhoughton from 1885-92. Thomas was described as a bleacher, dyer and calico printer and the proprietor of Firwood Bleach Works. He was also a church warden at St Maxentius, Bradshaw, from 1872-93 and gave time, resources and money for the building of the new church there.

Thomas’ interest in the Horninghold region may have originated from his marriage at Uppingham in 1865 to Emily Augusta Purdon of Glaston, Rutland. Three years later he bought Blaston Hall as a residence in the area, to which was added the Horninghold manor of almost 1,800 acres after the death of Thomas Chamberlayne in 1876. From the 1880s, Horninghold was developed as an estate and sporting village, combining estate worker cottages, stabling for hunters and larger houses for tenants and the probable use of guests. It represented the first significant investment in the village since the Turpins in the early 17th century.

The first thing Thomas did was to build a large hunting stables adjacent to Horninghold House. This was probably designed by Joseph Goddard, a Leicester architect, whose practice was used throughout the Hardcastle’s tenure. Goddard was probably also responsible for alterations undertaken at Blaston Hall, which was a late 18th-century house built by Revd. John Owsley.

This work was followed by estate houses along East Norton Road.

Thomas died in 1902, and although his main residence was still Bradshaw Hall, he was buried at Horninghold with a prestigious memorial in the form of a cross with decoration copied from the south door arch of the church. Perhaps the decision to bury him here was his wife’s, for she outlived him by another 21 years and she is also commemorated on the memorial. Emily continued to live at Blaston Hall (she was there in 1912) and after her death the house remained empty until demolition in 1929.

Thomas died in 1902, and although his main residence was still Bradshaw Hall, he was buried at Horninghold with a prestigious memorial in the form of a cross with decoration copied from the south door arch of the church. Perhaps the decision to bury him here was his wife’s, for she outlived him by another 21 years and she is also commemorated on the memorial. Emily continued to live at Blaston Hall (she was there in 1912) and after her death the house remained empty until demolition in 1929.

The estate was inherited by the eldest son, Thomas Augustus Hardcastle, who was born in 1866. His tenure coincided with Henry Langton Goddard assuming control of the Goddard architectural practice in Leicester - Joseph had died in 1900 and Henry was the same age as Thomas. Inspired by the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement, with its interest in traditional vernacular styles and building methods, they evolved a new vision for the village, which focused more on refashioning existing buildings using sympathetic historical design and local materials, such as Collyweston slate.

A detailed study of the buildings created by the Hardcastles can be found on the Domestic architecture page here.

The estate also engaged in significant planting in the grounds of the big houses along Hallaton Road, with specimen trees now dominating this area of the village. In Volume V of The Victoria History of Leicestershire - Gartree Hundred, published in 1964, it is claimed that Thomas Augustus set out to create a model ‘garden’ village at Horninghold. This was not the case. A model garden village requires a central scheme based on the planned integration of buildings and planting. Rather, we see two successive owners developing their manorial estate, within the fashions of contemporary taste, on the footprint of the original village with infill development. Indeed East Norton Road never had significant planting, as shown by early photographs.

Outside the village, Hardcastle invested in farms and estate cottages, including Muckleborough Farm, Knob Hill Farm, Hoeback Farm and Belcher’s Lodge. In total the estate has seven farms ranging from 90 to 293 acres. In relation to the church, Thomas Augustus supported the insertion of new windows into the chancel and the rebuilding of the porch between 1904-06.

The First World War put an end to the Hardcastle’s manorial ambitions and to investment in the estate. The war created unprecedented challenges for traditional landed families and industrialists, both in terms of dynastic succession and in finances. The conflict also took its toll on the Hardcastle's architect, who suffered from shell-shock following an injury in France and subsequently developed diabetes. Two villagers died in the fighting: Lance Corporal Frank Brown, aged 23, and Lance Corporal Richard Ward, aged 38.

In 1916 Thomas Augustus Hardcastle sold Blaston Hall jointly to Alexander Cross, the tenant of Horninghold House/Hall, and his brother Thomas. Two years later, in June 1918, he also sold them the Horninghold estate. The sale must also have been precipitated by Hardcastle's marriage to Katherine Bruce of Gloucester and their move to London - their son, Peter Fernie, was born in Marylebone in 1919, the name Fernie being a reference to the Fernie Hunt based at Great Bowden.

Alexander died c.1921 and the estate was then owned by Thomas until his death, although Blaston Hall was described as being empty in 1924. The Horninghold estate was sold, in and after 1931, in several lots. The sale particulars describe it as an estate of 1,788 acres with the Hall being a ‘comfortable hunting residence’ together with ‘two gentlemen’s residences, or hunting boxes’ in the form of Orchard House and the Manor.

The Hall and the advowson were acquired by W. R. Crabtree and a large part of the land passed to George Brudenell of Deene Park in Northamptonshire. The manorial rights seem to have died out at this time, although a sale of the Hall in 1951 claimed that the ‘reputed Manor or Lordship’ was included within the possession of that property.

The church was restored in 1936 following a funding campaign led by Albert Herbert, Leicester architect and keen historian and Earl Ferrers of Staunton Harold. A letter was placed by the Rector, G. L. Bennett  in The Times in December 1933 which stated the church was ‘in a very decayed condition and, unless immediate steps are taken, is likely to collapse’.

The letter then reveals the scale of poverty and unemployement in the village in the depression of the 1930s: ‘The difficulty is that there are only about 60 adults in the village and most of the men have no regular employment, and some none at all. The three big houses in the village until quite recently were empty. One is now occupied’. It states that £100 has been raised by villagers out of a total of £1,000 needed. Herbert stated in his report that ‘little or no extensive repair work has been done during the last 100 or 150 years’ and that the main problems were fractures in the walls and tower, defective roofing and inadequate leading.

Albert Herbert returned to the church in 1951 for further repair works and while working on the south aisle he discovered a cross slab grave cover which he attributed to a cross bearer of the Knights Templar. A full discussion of this find can be found in the Stories section.

The modern village has seen little development since the 1950s, other than some infill housing on Hallaton Road east of Orchard House and a further house on East Norton Road. In the meantime the trees and shrubs planted by the Hardcastles have grown to create the verdant effect we see today. The population of the parish remains small, being about 80 residents across the village and outlying properties.