ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH
GRIMSTON, LEICESTERSHIRE
HISTORY & FOUNDATION
The present church dedicated to St. John the Baptist lies about half a mile south of the Saltway, which ran from Mountsorrel to Ermine Street. It was possibly the site of a Roman settlement. Following the establishment of the Mercian See at Repton in 656 AD, missionaries spread across the area often using existing settlements as the basis for their Christian teaching.
Documents at Launde Priory, which was founded early in the twelfth century, show Grimston Church was one of the Priory’s possessions in 1162 and it was probably one of the foundation endowments. The Church continued under the jurisdiction of Launde Priory until 1277 when Bishop Gravesend confirmed an earlier gift of the Church by Bishop Groteste of Lincoln to the Knights Templar at Rothley.
However at the beginning of the fourteenth century this order was suppressed by Edward II and ownership passed to the Hospitallers. Much of the existing church was developed during the next two hundred years until the Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII. The ancient Soke of Rothley, including Grimston and Wartnaby passed into private hands and thus Grimston belonged to the Babington family as a Diocesan Peculiar from 1552 until 1865. In 1865 Grimston and Wartnaby became a separate Parish with Wartnaby as the Parish Church, both under the ownership of Francis Reckitt. This arrangement stood until 1931 when Grimston took again the status of a Parish Church after a lapse of 654 years.