[3] In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Galbi, one of 230 manors in Leicestershire held by Hugh de Grandmesnil.

In 1610 William Whalley, Lord of the Manor of King's Norton, Leicestershire, purchased the lands from the Haselwoods for £600.

He received 663 acres (300 each of arable and pasture), 8 messuages (substantial dwellings with outbuildings and attached land), 4 cottages, a windmill and a dovecote.

From 1614 Whalley, John Dand and George Goodman, by private agreement, carried out piecemeal land enclosure of the open field system.

The church had previously been rebuilt in 1520, and from this 16th-century building the chancel and communion rail survive as the then vicar, Thomas Shaw, refused to let Fortrey touch it.