In 1790 the historian John Throsby remarked that Sileby's parish church had a nave, two aisles (north and south) and a spacious chancel, but no monuments. He goes on to make comments about the memorials there and makes particular reference to the large number of gentry buried within the church. Wills of Sileby inhabitants (surviving from the Tudor period) sometimes have requests to be buried within St Marys. However, due the expense it was firmly the preserve of the more wealthier or privileged members of the community. 

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Many of the memorials listed here are not 'open' for the general viewer to see. Some are hidden under carpets and other flooring, and some are eroded by the passage of feet to the point of being difficult to read or totally undecipherable.

Over the years a number of surveys have listed these memorials. Nichols outlines them as they were in 1800. An undated card index at Leicestershire Record Office shows that the surveyors had full access to the stones. I conducted a brief assessment in 2005 when I got to see the Nave stones, and again in 2015 when the North Aisle stones were briefly uncovered. The record of each inscription will be a mixture of all three sources, and are noted as such.    

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