Burbage, Leicestershire
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Burbage is a parish in Leicestershire in the United Kingdom. It is part of the Hinckley urban area.
History
Leofric, Earl of Mercia, gave the village of Burbage to Coventry Abbey in 1043. At that time it was valued at two shillings. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, its value had risen to £4. There were 1¼ hides of land (around 150 acres or 600,000 m²) with 2 ploughs. Twenty villagers held two smallholdings, with two slaves and eight ploughs. Burbage also had a meadow, measuring a furlong in length and width (about 40,500 m²). The village also owned woodland half a league by four furlongs (2.2 km²).
In 1564 the diocesan returns show a population of 57 families within Burbage and 6 at Sketchley. Burbage, for many centuries a small farming community, remained very thinly populated. In the census of 1801 there were 1098 inhabitants. It was not until the twentieth century that the population exceeded 2000.
By 1953, the population had risen to 3,983, and by 1958 there were more than 5,000 on the electoral roll; this rapid growth was largely due to the expansion of Sketchley Hill housing estates.