A HISTORIAN'S VIEW OF COLE ORTON

The first historian of Cole Orton (often known as Coleorton)… "William Burton, Esquire, of Falde, near Tutbury, Staffordshire". In 1622, he published a volume entitled "The description of Leicestershir"...
Burton writes "Cole-Orton, so called of the cole mines that are there, and have been, many yeeres ago, in great abundance".

The history of Cole Orton is not startling. It is that of a typical ancient village in the Midlands and is inextricably bound up with the history of the Leicestershire Beaumonts, who have had their seat at Cole Orton Hall, or in the vicinity, for hundreds of years. Even fifty years ago, no resident of the district could have visualised Cole Orton without the benignant sway of a Sir George Beaumont at the hall. But time has marched on and brought changes in accordance with the trends of the mid-twentieth century. No Beaumont now lives in Cole Orton… The home of the Beaumonts for so many generations has now passed out of the ownership of the family, was then owned by the Nation Coal Board, and has now been converted into apartments.

The name Cole Orton (or Cole Overton) is a corruption of Coal (or coal) Overtown… Coal has been worked at and near Cole Orton for hundreds of years… Another name that occurs in ancient records is "Overton this district may possibly have been what is now known as "Farmtown", but more probably it comprised the Sawcey… part of the parish known in these days as the "moor". It is thought that "Overton Sawcey" area that would be enclosed, were lines drawn from Sinope Bridge to "The George" Inn, from the Inn to the Rectory, and from the Rectory to Sinope Bridge.

In the days of the Civil War, Cole Orton had a temporary importance. Rather over two miles from the Hall lay the Castle of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which was a Royalist stronghold, and was under attack by Cromwellian forces, whose headquarters were at the Hall. The Castle and Hall were reduced to ruins, while Cole Orton Church was extensively damaged. The Roundheads not only destroyed much of beauty and artistic value in the Church, but also stripped the lead from its roof to make ammunition. Charles I was a guest at Ashby Castle shortly before the capture of Leicester by his forces, and his subsequent defeat at Naseby. The King was pursued by Cromwell's cavalry to the walls of Leicester. Thence, Charles fled to Ashby, where he was again entertained for one night, before leaving on the following morning for Lichfield on his way to Wales.

An old resident of the parish has told me that, just of Corkscrew Lane, which is one way of travelling from Cole Orton to Ashby, there is a copse which, as a child, she was frightened to enter for fear of the ghosts of Commonwealth men who fell in the attacks on Ashby... the Castle fell in February, 1646… It was subsequently destroyed, its ruins standing today open to the inspection of the historically-minded and curious. Cole Orton Hall, too, has vanished, but there stands on its site the more modern Hall, this lovely Georgian building, the home for many years of the Leicestershire Beaumonts, gives a grace to the countryside which will not wane for many years to come; not until time removes the beautiful house from its commanding position facing the wild grandeur of the historic Charnwood Forest.

COLE ORTON HALL - ITS OWNERS & VISITORS

Cole Orton has been the seat of the Leicestershire Beaumonts for over 500 years. It is one of the few families in England whose tree is firmly rooted in the soil of the days of William the Conqueror. In their long line the Beaumonts have given to England warriors, statesmen, lawyers, poets and artists. The National Gallery owes its foundation to the Seventh Baronet (George Beaumont), himself a landscape artist of very considerable gifts… Sir George Beaumont was a generous and discerning patron of the arts, and among his friends and protégés we find such names as William Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southy, David Wilkie, Sir Walters Scott, Constable, Shelley and Joshua Reynolds.

The present Hall is the third that has stood on the high ground alongside the church, looking across the valley, in which lies Cole Orton village, to the rugged grandeur of Charnwood Forest. The stately Georgian mansion, with its Doric portico, was planned in 1800 and completed in 1807 by the seventh Baronet, the architect having been George Dance. It is surrounded by large and charming grounds, in which lies the Winter Garden laid out by William Wordsworth. In that garden there can still be seen the stone seat where Sir Walter Scott sat as he planned the tournament scenes that figured so prominently in "Ivanhoe". Sitting in that seat, too, Scott wrote a large part of the book.

From its picture Gallery came the sixteen pictures given by the seventh Baronet which formed the foundation of the National Gallery. Other famous pictures were in the gallery of the Hall up to recent years. Two of these were from Rubens' brush.

THE WORD'S OF WORDSWORTH in 1808

Another member of the family Francis Beaumont (1584-1616), the Elizabethan dramatist. The following lines are still clearly decipherable on a stone wall tablet in the rounds of the Hall-they were written by William Wordsworth in 1808.


IN & AROUND COLE ORTON

A guide book description of Cole Orton tells us that it is a very pretty village, with picturesque cottages, and that the Hall contains many works of art, and that its beautiful gardens are associated with Shelley, Wordsworth, Scott, Southey, Beaumont and Fletcher. Further, that in the Church can be seen Renaissance woodwork, a fifteenth-century painted glass window, and Beaumont family tombs, with effigies. In Hall farm nearby, the book concludes, is the kitchen portrayed in Sir David Wilkie's picture "The Blind Fiddler".

The village is certainly one of the most beautiful in Leicestershire. The old village lay on what is now the north-western side of the parish, close to the old 13th century Church, now there are only a few houses in Church Town and Farm Town, the two hamlets that seem to have been the originalCole Netherton and Cole Overton…

Close by, along the main road to Leicester and Loughborough, stands the school, founded in 1701 by Viscount Beaumont, and rebuilt on its present site by his descendant, Canon William Beresford Beaumont, in 1867. Canon Beaumont became Rector of Cole Orton in 1864… Beyond the school is St John's Chapel… on the opposite side of the road lies the Fish Pond, which is past years was well stocked with fish for the table of the Hall… A few hundred yards further on lie Cole Orton cross-roads, with the present village down the hill to the left, and the Moor (the ancient "Overton Sawcey") up the hill to the right. The village and Moor are well populated… the Post Office, still further from the school and not so far short of two hilly miles from the Church… Just beyond the Council houses, at Sinope, runs the railway connecting Burton-on-Trent with Leicester and serving Coalville and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. This line is of great importance for the carriage of coal from New Lount, Coalville, Ellistown and other collieries. At the other end of the village, at the bottom of Stoney Lane, there still remains the embankment of the second railway that was built in England. Stephenson was responsible and the principal traffic was coal.

In addition to the Church and St John's Chapel, the Primitive Methodists have a modern chapel, as well as an older chapel, now used as a Sunday School. These stand in the village, while on the Moor is a Baptist Chapel.

The views from different parts of the parish are varied. Those towards the Church and from the higher parts, in the direction of Charnwood Forest, are remarkably fine. To the north-east lie the twin tips of the New Lount Colliery. These certainly have no beauty in themselves but they fall into the general landscape in a manner that is not unpleasing; a resident of Cole Orton soon accepts them as an essential part of the scene, reminding him of the source of the district's prosperity. On the north side of the Moor stand the tips of the old Cole Orton Colliery, much reduced in size during the Second World War.. these tips are now grass-grown and clothed with willow-herb and other flowers… assumed a certain wild beauty of their own and lend grace rather than ugliness to the countryside.

The thirst of man is generously catered for; there being five public houses in the parish… The Beaumont Arms, The Blacksmiths Arms, The Angel, The Kings Arms and The George Inn. There is a spirit about Cole Orton, which calls out a deep loyalty from its people, a loyalty not confined to those who are still resident in the place. Its long history, and past literary and artistic associations contribute to this spirit, a spirit implicit in one of the inscriptions written for the grounds of the Hall by William Wordsworth, which can still be read on a stone there.


This inscription stands on a spot that looks out across the valley, in which lies the village, to the heights of Charnwood Forest. Leicestershire is, of course, a favourite haunt of those who follow hounds. In past years there have been meets at the Hall and at Cole Orton cross-roads. But I have seen no huntsman or hounds in or near Cole Orton in recent years. Charnwood Forest was a hunting ground in Saxon days. Then the Forest Courts were held at Groby, Whitwick and Shepshed. Modern fox-hunting may be said to have been evolved in the district at the foot of the Charnwood hills. For it is there that stands Quorn Hall, which was the home of Hugo Meynell for nearly fifty years.


Cited in "Cole Orton and the Beaumonts", by Rev. A E Eagar 1949