THE FIRST 500 YEARS

The oldest parts of Kirby Church were built in around 1300, although there was a church on the same spot from 1168. The south wall of the nave is of the Early Decorated Period. 

There is a piscina (a drain for washing the Communion plate and cup) at the east end of the nave, in the south wall. This implies that there was once an altar by it, so it is possible that at one time the church consisted only of the nave and perhaps a yard of the existing chancel.

For many years the church was a chapel of ease; that is, although people from the village worshipped there Kirby was served by the Rector of Glenfield and most baptisms, weddings etc. took place in the parish church at Glenfield. However Kirby had separate Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, which survive, with a few gaps, from 1597. They are now in the Leicestershire Record Office. 

In 1622 the church contained eight coats of arms of local families (none of which survive). This included the Hastings family, Lords of the Manor from 1455 to 1630. Kirby Castle, a few hundred yards from the church, was begun by Lord Hastings and left unfinished on his execution in 1483.

 During the Civil War, Commonwealth and Protectorate of 1642-1660, Kirby Church was unusual in that it remained “open”, and it was used at this time by many people from outside the parish. 

One of the few monuments surviving from before the Victorian restoration is a slate and marble mural on the south Chancel wall, in memory of “Francis St.John Esqr” who lived at Kirby Frith from c.1727 to his death in 1732.

Nicholls mentioned a Royal Coat of Arms above the chancel arch in 1811. The one hanging there today was moved from the porch in 1924. It contains the arms of the kingdom of Hanover on a smaller 'shield of pretence' in the middle. The Arms may be dated, therefore, to between 1801 and 1837 (when Hanover was removed from the Royal Arms on the accession of Queen Victoria). It used to be thought that there was a crown on the Arms of Hanover, and this would have meant that the Arms dated from after 1816. However, since the Arms were cleaned in the 1980s, the 'crown' appears more like a bonnet, which would mean that the Arms date from before 1815.

During this period the furnishings included deal pews, a “yellow painted” pulpit, and a wooden chancel screen. The weathercock dates from 1824. There was a low gallery at the west end with a “large ancient square font upon a circular base” underneath it. (The font was broken up when the gallery was dismantled in the early 1900s.) In 1835 there was one service each Sunday, alternating morning and afternoon, and Holy Communion only four times per year. At this time there were still only about 100 people living in the parish, as there had been since the fourteenth century.