Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Nevill Holt Conservation Area

The Conservation Area of Nevill Holt is small and embraces the Hall, its gardens and associated buildings. These are set in an elevated position in the midst of parkland. There is no village. Three avenues of limes and oak along the roads converge on the Hall but are outside the Conservation Area. The grounds and gardens of the Hall have various trees providing a setting for the Hall. Nevill Holt Hall faces Rockingham Castle across the Welland Valley and both are elevated and comparable in size. Nevill Holt Hall is a rambling large country house incorporating a 13th Century hall, 15th to 17th Century additions, with much of the whole having been castellated and rendered in the later 19th Century. The parish church is physically attached to the Hall, its needle spire being a landmark for miles around.

The Hall and most of the adjacent buildings belong or belonged to the estate including the courtyard stable block with clock tower, several stone houses and cottages, a farmyard and extensive walls. The existing walls to the garden north of the Hall are particularly significant. The unity of the Conservation Area is the domestic land and buildings of a great estate. Almost all the buildings are of ironstone with thatch or Collyweston roofs.

These domestic lands and buildings are shown in an estate map of 1661 and have great resemblance to the present layout. The Conservation Area covers the immediate grounds and gardens to the Hall shown on this map, with the addition of the gardens, orchard and farm yard of the few houses to the east of village road. Although the surrounding countryside of the Estate (including the playing fields) and the avenues are excluded from the Conservation Area, views to the Conservation Area, particularly from the south are very important.

Nevill Holt Conservation Area map