Kibworth

The ecclesiastical parish of Kibworth in south Leicestershire consists of two villages, Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt, forming two civil parishes.   The Parish Church of St Wilfrid serves both villages.

Several families bearing the Woodford name lived in Kibworth during the 18th and 19th centuries.  They were mainly descendants of farming families from Northamptonshire.  The first record of a member of the family in Northamptonshire is that of Robert Woodford, son of Richard Woodford, who was baptised at Old in 1560.

The above list is extracted from 'Memorial Inscriptions at Kibworth Cemetery, published by the Kibworth History Society.  The booklet contains transcriptions of all readable memorials in existence at 31st December 2008 in Kibworth Cemetery.  It includes an index to the 1839 persons mentioned with a complete record of each of the 1139 memorials and plans to enable the reader to locate the graves. 

The booklet is no longer available to purchase, but copies are available at Kibworth Community LIbrary and the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland at Wigston.

In 1916, Kibworth resident Frances P. Woodford wrote A History of Kibworth and Reminiscences, an insight into village life during his childhood years in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

Members of his close family are mentioned including the landlord and owner of the local coaching inn, the Coach and Horses.

The name 'F.P. Woodford' is carved into an external buttress on the east end of the parish church.  This grafitti has been altered at some time to read 'E.B.Woodford' who may have been Edward B. Woodford.

By the time Woodford wrote his book he had been away from Kibworth for many years and was relying on his childhood memories.