Schools in Desford

Desford lies about eight miles west of Leicester. By the 19th century it was an industrial village, with many framework knitters. Nonconformity was strong, and while there never seems to have been more than two chapels in the village at any one time, they were variously held by Independents, Particular Baptists, General Baptists, General and Particular Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, Primitive Methodists and the Free Church. Although the manor was held by the Duchy of Lancaster, landownership was divided, the Anglican church was weak, and in complete contrast to the neighbouring villages of Ratby and Bagworth, there appears to have been no opposition to the formation of a board school, which opened in 1876.