BARKBY, a township and a parish in Barrow-upon-Soar district, Leicester. The township lies on an affluent of the river Wreak, 1½ mile S by E of Syston r. station, and 4½ NE of Leicester; and it includes the hamlet of Hambleton. Real property, £3,739. Pop., 504. Houses, 117. The parish contains also the township of North Thurmaston and the hamlet of Barkby-Thorpe; and its Post Town is Syston, under Leicester. Acres, 2,290. Real property, exclusive of Thurmaston, £4,739. Pop., 791. Houses, 183. Barkby Hall is the seat of W. Pochin, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £250.* Patron, W. Pochin, Esq. The church is good; and there are two Methodist chapels and a national school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))