THORNTON, a parish, with three townships, in Market-Bosworth district, Leicester; on the Swannington railway, around Bagworth r. station and 5½ miles NE by E of Market-Bosworth. It has a post-office under Leicester. Acres, 3,930. Real property, £7,503; of which £587 are in mines. Pop., 1,292. Houses, 256. Most of the land belongs to Viscount Maynard and the Duke of Rutland. The living is a vicarage, with Bagworth and Stanton chapelries, in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £202. Patron, Viscount Maynard. The church is old. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, a national school, and charities £89.

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