The parish church of Oadby, is dedicated to St. Peter and dates from the very early 14th century. In the 19th century the church underwent several repairs and renovations; interior walls ‘coloured, re-pewing, and the chancel roof repairing. The church was also again restored in 1927.
The original four bells and their fittings were repaired in 1876 although by 1900 one or two of these bells were said to be broken or cracked and out of tune. These were subsequently replaced by six heavier bells which were cast and hung in 1901 and a further two added in 1987 to make the octave.
There has been some evidence of Anglian burials in the vicinity that were found in around 1760 near or on Brocks Hill. It is believed that Oadby has been occupied since around 550AD probably first by the Angles and then by the Danes who ruled the area to around 920AD. The name Oadby has the usual Danish ‘by’ which means village or settlement but the name has gone through several changes since 1086 when it was recorded as Aldebi in the Domesday Book and belonged to Hugh de Grandmesnil. The name changed to Oladebi. Outherby, Onderby and finally Oadby. The church of St Peter’s consists of a west tower with broached spire, nave, north and south aisles, chancel and vestry. The main fabric of the church dates from around 1300-1330 this includes the tower and north aisle. The perpendicular clerestory was added later and is set quite high against the tower. Also on the west wall of the tower inside can clearly be seen the original roof line before the clerestory was added. This also extends well below the heads of the arcade arches and shows how steep the original roof was. Another interesting point is the two different stones being used, one being dressed or faced stone whilst the other looks like rubble infill on the west side of the tower. The chancel area was rebuilt and restored by Godd & Paget in 1887-88, at the same time the vestry was added.
“If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first atchurchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”