St Mary's Church, Hinckley 3.32

St Mary's Parish Church is the oldest building in Hinckley, and is situated in central Hinckley. It is an Anglican Parish Church in the Diocese of Leicester and is designated by Historic England as a Grade II* listed building. In addition, the North Chapel of the Church has been converted into a coffee bar.Brief HistorySt Mary's parish church in Hinckley was dedicated in the Middle Ages to the Assumption of Saint Mary the Virgin. This church building has stood on the site for almost nine hundred years, although there may well have been a church already on the site, as the remnants of an Anglo Saxon sun-dial is visible on the diagonal buttress on the south-east corner of the chancel. The church was built by William FitzOsbern, who came over with William the Conqueror.1066 - 1926A parish church has stood in this site for over 900 years. F.C Bedford, who wrote a guide to St Mary's in 1936, says, `It is generally agreed among historians that a Saxon church existed at one time in Hinckley'. The name Hinckley is Anglo-Saxon: 'Hinck' is someone's name, and 'ley' is a meadow. So if there was an Anglo-Saxon settlement here, it is fairly safe to assume that there would have been a church building. The church's income was granted by its founder, William FitzOsbern, to the Abbey of Lyre in Normandy, and the connection with this Norman abbey continued intermittently until 1415 when the revenue was finally transferred to the Priory of Mount Grace in Yorkshire. (This piece of history explains the name given to Mount Grace High School, Leicester Road, Hinckley, which is built on land once owned by the church).