Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Hallaton Conservation Area

The Conservation Area covers the whole of the built up area of the village together with its open spaces and some contiguous open countryside. The village lies on a south facing slope in rolling countryside. It was in mediaeval times a significant place with a market, having six roads converging on it. Today five minor roads converge from the surrounding countryside and villages. Consequently the village does not consist of one principal street, but a network of irregular roads and lanes, some with open spaces between them. There is no one focal point in the village but there are three significant nodes: by the church, by the Butter Cross and at North End. The many village roads result in several significant vistas, at road junctions, (Eastgate with Medbourne Road) at the nodes (by the Church of St. Michael) and where roads bend to form closing vistas (High Street).  

The essential quality of Hallaton is the many traditional stone buildings and others set amongst its network of roads, junctions and open spaces. The predominant building material is ironstone with limestone; the roofs are of thatch, slate and collywestons. Interspersed within this is much brick. Some of this is of the 18th century, for example in Churchgate, where stone cottages have been extended upwards in brick or have replaced earlier stone buildings. The traditional orangered brick is used considerably for 19th century buildings and walls. Walls of stone, brick and mud are found throughout; many of the roads have granite kerbs. River cobbles for pavements and roads remain in a few places. There are also some granite setts. The variety of road angles and curves is reflected by the line of the buildings which front the curving streets. This is noticeable at several points along Churchgate.

The greens and open spaces of Hallaton are of close cut grass, or are meadows and paddocks, gardens and allotments. These are protected by oak posts and rails. These are in Churchgate, around the Cross Green which has the Butter Cross and War Memorial, and at North End and where several roads irregularly meet and where the edge of the village and Conservation Area is marked by a duck pond.

The meadow paddock areas include areas behind houses and streets as between North End and The High Street, south of the High Street and off Hunt’s Lane. They indicate the evolution of the settlement pattern being garden/agricultural land for the use of the dwellings lining the streets of a rural village, rather than urban style compact development. The principal meadow area of the Conservation Area lies below the village to the south. It provides a setting for the village. The Conservation Area rises from the brook (of local importance in the annual bottle kicking contest between Medbourne & Hallaton) through meadows with long ponds to the village streets. The long yards and outbuildings of the High Street extend down this slope. This area of open meadow space extends in the west upwards and across the road to include the open space of the Churchyard and paddock in front of a former Vicarage. The Church and former Vicarage on the higher land are prominent in the village view. The garden area of the Grange, a fine large stone house in Churchgate, bounded by high walls merges into both these open spaces.

Another open space garden area of significance is alongside Eastgate, being the grounds of the former Hallaton Hall. The enclosed grounds are subject to a Tree Preservation Order.

Hallaton Conservation Area map