Village sign for Pickwell, Leicestershire, on a small green on Leesthorpe Road.
The sign has at the top the village church, and on the name plate small images of a cricket bat, a sheep, a miner, and the war memorial. It has a small shield with the date 2000 AD.
"Pickwell is a small, hill-crest village 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east of Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire which used to have an ecclesiastical parish of its own and is since the early 20th century has been in the civil parish and Church of England parish of Somerby which is 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the SSW, connected by an almost straight lane. The population of the village at the 2011 census was included in the civil parish of Somerby.
A spring rises here as the source of a small stream which explains the well part of its name.
Under Edward the Confessor Pickwell and Leesthorpe manors and in all but their rectories were held by Ordmar, and in 1086 of the king by Geoffrey de Wirce. In 1129 Pickwell and Leesthorpe were held by Roger de Mowbray (Lord of Montbray) who had acquired all Geoffrey's land in Leicestershire. The Mowbray family continued to hold Pickwell and Leesthorpe as tenants-in-chief until the 15th century. After the death of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk, in 1476, and of his daughter and heir Anne in 1481, the Mowbray estates were divided between the representatives of her two co-heirs, one of whom, William, Lord Berkeley, obtained the overlordship of Pickwell and Leesthorpe for considerable time for his family: last mentioned in connection with Pickwell and Leesthorpe in 1630. Under the Mowbrays the abbey of Vaudey held the manor at Leesthorpe in the old parish, and in the 12th century another holding, at Pickwell and Leesthorpe, was held by the Camville family.
Under Henry II Walter de Camville held land (later known as Camville Fee) at Pickwell which had apparently been in the possession of the Camville family before he inherited it. Walter was succeeded by his son Roger. By 1279 the Camville fee at Pickwell and Leesthorpe was being held as 3 knights' fees by Andrew of Astley, or Eastley, before being leased to the Morwic and Sproxton families. In 1299 the Morwic lands were co-held by de Bulmer, de Lumley, and de Waterville heirs.
Later names of heirs were de Kelleby, Bek. and le Brabazon, and by 1346 William Curzon whose family thereafter appears as the only considerable landowners at Pickwell itself and the family continued to hold the manor which appears to be the main estate, until 1532, when Thomas Curzon sold his lands in the parish, then described as the manors of Pickwell and Leesthorpe, to Richard Cave. The manor was held by the Caves until sold in 1638 by William Cave to Elizabeth Hicks, Viscountess Camden. From her the lands, generally described subsequently simply as the manor of Pickwell, passed to her descendants, the Noel family, Earls of Gainsborough who were still in possession in 1936. "
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