Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Leire Conservation Area

The village of Leire is set in flat countryside of well hedged pasture land. From a distance only the squat spire of the church can be seen. The Conservation Area follows the linear village along one sinuous street, Main Street, falling gently northwards from the church and the Dunton - Frolesworth Road.

The core of the village lies along Main Street. On the corner at the top is the Church of St. Peter set within its square churchyard bounded by granite walls. The church itself is of the same angular pink granite, but with an earlier medieval sandstone tower with spire overlooking the Main Street. Opposite is an open space backed by a hedge. This is in use as a car park for the adjacent Queens Arms public house; the church and this space effectively terminate the top of Main Street. A large weeping willow below the churchyard also emphasises the change to the dwellings of the village street below. The buildings of the street from here tumble down the street, some of those at the top not facing the street directly.

To the east of the Main Street for most of its length there is a Back Lane some 50m away terminating the land attached to the rear of the street properties. This Back Lane forms the boundary of the Conservation Area. It links to Main Street in the south at the point where a small road leads off opposite to Eaglesfield Farm; at the northern end it links at the point where Stemborough Lane leads off opposite. At both points are prominent buildings in the street scene. In the south is the village hall (formerly the school), a very small 19th century polychromatic brick building at the corner of Station Lane and Main Street. One gable faces across the space of Station Lane up towards the upper part of Main Street; its other gable faces directly down Main Street. This little building punctuates the line of Main Street. At the bottom end of Main Street between the junction of Main Street and Stemborough Lane and facing directly up Main Street is Abbotsleigh, an Edwardian house in its own grounds with a garden in front. The house of red brick and Welsh slate has moderately ornate woodwork and windows. It closes the view down the Main Street and terminates the core of the village and the Conservation Area.  

In between the village hall and Abbotsleigh is the sinuous Main Street with many of its buildings fronting directly onto the street. These buildings are varied, but mainly cottages and terraces of cottages. In the middle are the more substantial Glebe Farmhouse (Regency red brick) directly fronting the street, and the Edwardian double fronted Western House with small garden in front. Below them are a variety of buildings, mainly set back with gardens, some of late 20th century date and some cottages. There are now no working farms in the village street though previously there were several, remnants of whose yard buildings still remain.

Leire Conservation Area follows the Main Street of a former agricultural village with a variety of older cottages and houses along the street and later development with front gardens at its lower end. Twentieth century ribbon development and development in closes at both the bottom and top of the village have been excluded.

Leire Conservation Area map