Stonesby is a small village within the Melton borough of Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is 6 miles (9.7 km) northeast of Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray

Melton Mowbray is a town in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It is to the northeast of Leicester, and southeast of Nottingham...

, and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southeast of Waltham on the Wolds

Waltham on the Wolds

Waltham on the Wolds is a village located in the civil parish of Waltham and Thorpe Arnold, in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England, about northeast of Melton Mowbray and south-west of Grantham on the A607 road.-Geography:...

.

Forming part of the Sproxton

Sproxton, Leicestershire

Sproxton is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Melton in Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Lincolnshire. It has a population of 480....

 civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

, Stonesby broadly consists of a small number of limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 habitats concentrated around the local parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

, set amongst a broad area of arable land

Arable land

In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...

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Governance

From a very early time, Stonesby formed an ancient parish within the Framland

Framland

Framland was a hundred in north-east Leicestershire, roughly corresponding to today's borough of Melton. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as one of Leicestershire's four wapentakes....

 hundred

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

 of the historic county boundaries

Historic counties of England

The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...

 of Leicestershire, though was abolished as a parish in 1936. Between 1894 and 1935, it lay within the Melton Mowbray Rural District, and from 1935 to 1974, within the Melton and Belvoir Rural District

Melton and Belvoir Rural District

Melton and Belvoir Rural District was a rural district of Leicestershire, England, from 1935 to 1974.It was formed in 1935 from the merger of the Melton Mowbray Rural District and the Belvoir Rural District, with part going to Melton Mowbray urban district also.In 1974, under the Local Government...

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Since 1974, Stonesby has formed part of the Melton borough of Leicestershire.

External links

• Stonesby, Leicestershire Villages entry.