Worthington is a village and civil parish in North West Leicestershire

North West Leicestershire

North West Leicestershire is a local government district in Leicestershire, England. Its main towns are Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Coalville.The district contains East Midlands Airport, which operates flights to the rest of Britain and to various places in Europe...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the town of Coalville

Coalville

Coalville is a town in North West Leicestershire, England, with a population estimated in 2003 to be almost 33,000. It is situated on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, close to junction 22 of the M1 motorway where the A511 meets the A50 between Ashby-de-la-Zouch and...

 and a similar distance north-east of the market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 of Ashby-de-la-Zouch

Ashby-de-la-Zouch

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, — Zouch being pronounced "Zoosh" — often shortened to Ashby, is a small market town and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England, within the National Forest. It is twinned with Pithiviers in north-central France....

. The village is about 5 miles (8 km) from East Midlands Airport and junction 23a of the M1 motorway

M1 motorway

The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...

 where it meets the A42 road

A42 road

The A42 is a major trunk road in the East Midlands region of the United Kingdom. It links junction 23A of the M1 motorway to junction 11 of the M42 motorway. The A42 is in effect a continuation of the M42, and its junctions are numbered accordingly....

. The parish also includes the hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 of Newbold

Newbold Coleorton

Newbold otherwise Newbold Coleorton is a hamlet in the parish of Worthington, Leicestershire, England.In the nineteenth century it was also sometimes referred to as Newbold Saucey or Newbold Juxta Worthington...

.

History

Worthington's toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 may derive from the family name "Werden" or a man called "Weorth".

The Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 records Henry de Ferrers

Henry de Ferrers

Henry de Ferrers was a Norman soldier from a noble family who took part in the conquest of England and is believed to have fought at the Battle of Hastings of 1066 and, in consequence, was rewarded with much land in the subdued nation.His elder brother William fell in the battle. William and Henri...

 as holding four carucate

Carucate

The carucate or ploughland was a unit of assessment for tax used in most Danelaw counties of England, and is found for example in Domesday Book. The carucate was based on the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season...

s of land at "Werditone"."

The Church of England parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 of Saint Matthew is Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

. Most of its present windows were added in the 13th century and the remainder were added in about 1300. Fragments remain of a Perpendicular Gothic screen that was added later in the Middle Ages. St. Matthew's is now part of the United Benefice of Breedon and Worthington.

The parish lock-up is believed to have been built late in the 18th century. It is an octagonal building with an octagonal spire but is called the Round House. It is built of brick and is a scheduled monument.

Worthington Methodist

Methodist Church of Great Britain

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is the largest Wesleyan Methodist body in the United Kingdom, with congregations across Great Britain . It is the United Kingdom's fourth largest Christian denomination, with around 300,000 members and 6,000 churches...

 Chapel was built in 1820.

In 1874 the Midland Railway

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....

 extended its Melbourne branch

Melbourne Military Railway

thumb|[[Buffer stop]]s by [[Isley Walton]] RoadThe Melbourne Military Railway was a military railway in Derbyshire used by British Army and Allied engineers during the Second World War from 1939 until late 1944 to prepare them for the invasion of mainland Europe...

 through Worthington parish to and opened Worthington railway station

Worthington railway station

Worthington railway station was a station at Worthington, Leicestershire, England. It was on a Midland Railway line built in 1874 from to a junction on the Leicester to Burton upon Trent Line near ....

 to serve the village. The Midland's successor the London, Midland and Scottish Railway

London, Midland and Scottish Railway

The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...

 withdrew the line's passenger service in the 1930s and British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways closed the line to freight traffic in 1980.

Worthington Primary school opened in about 1926.

The parish was predominantly rural until the 20th century, when the village was rapidly expanded to house workers for nearby collieries including New Lount Colliery. By the 1990s many of the local collieries had ceased operating and the village began to lose its mining identity.

Local nicknames for Worthington have included "Paraffin City" due to its late adoption of electricity, and "Yawny Box" which is an obsolete Derbyshire word for a donkey.

Amenities

Worthington has a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, the Malt Shovel Inn. It used to have another pub called the Swan.

The village has a post office.

National Cycle Route 6 passes through the parish, and at the site of the former railway station it joins the trackbed of the former railway to Melbourne, Derbyshire

Melbourne, Derbyshire

Melbourne is a Georgian market town in South Derbyshire, England. It is about 8 miles south of Derby and 2 miles from the River Trent. In 1837 a then tiny settlement in Australia was named after William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, and thus indirectly takes...

. In the parish the cycle route is called the Cloud Trail.

The parish is in the hunting country of the Quorn Hunt

Quorn Hunt

The Quorn Hunt, usually called The Quorn, established 1696, is one of the world's oldest fox hunting packs and claims to be the United Kingdom's most famous hunt...

.