Our Ibstock book was published in October 2020.
Ibstock is on the edge of the Leicestershire coalfield, but unlike some of the coalfield villages it has a much longer history. There was a village here by 1066, and Garendon Abbey established a grange here in the 12th century. Farming was important in the Middle Ages, and documents reveal the two-stage enclosure process which took place between the 1590s and 1770s.
Ibstock was an early centre of Nonconformity. This began to fade in the early 18th century but was re-energised in the late 18th century, and particularly from 1825, when the first of two coal mines was sunk in the parish. We have created an online tour of the various chapels in the village.
Important features of Ibstock’s history in the late 19th and early 20th century include the rapid rate of population growth, the implications of this for school places and for public health, the diversity of religious views, the impact of the dependence on a single industry and the flourishing of numerous sports and community organisations.