Conservation Areas in Harborough district - North Kilworth Conservation Area

The village of North Kilworth lies almost wholly to the south of the A4304 road, (Station Road, Lutterworth to Market Harborough). It is a network of small roads covering an oblong area of approximately 0.5 x 0.4km within the angle of Station Road and South Kilworth Road. The Conservation Area embraces almost the whole of the settlement including the paddocks between the South Kilworth Road and the village which give a setting for the village. It includes a narrow area north of the A4304 opposite the main village; this has some older buildings and completes the setting of the main road. It incorporates Landau House a fine red brick house at the western entrance with bay windows and ogee shaped mesh surround to the front door. The Conservation Area also includes the site of the former moated hall on the south-east edge of the village which now lies within the open space of the Millennium Green, together with the adjacent wetland area and springs in Cranmer Lane known as The Bogs. Cranmer Lane, the road to Husbands Bosworth before the Turnpike road was formed in 1755, has a thatched vernacular cottage in mud and brick at the former village entrance opposite the Bogs. Excluded are the modern houses off South Kilworth Road in the south, Elmcroft Road in the east (a mid 20th century development) and a group of houses on the north side of the A 4304 detached from any other development of the village.

The form of the village is a series of narrow lanes and roads, many linked by right angles to form blocks. Two roads lead to each of Station Road and South Kilworth Road. The series of corners and short sections of road give much character to the village. There is a sense of intimacy, no major vistas, and no dominating buildings. The street scenes change with differing houses on all roads. These include timberframed and thatched cottages, formal 18th century brick houses and farmhouses, and many nineteenth century houses and cottages. The many walls, the wide verges and enclosed spaces and gardens and the interspersed paddocks give form to the village. The washpit and the well on the verges by the junction of Washpit Lane with Back Lane are significant features.

Within the network of lanes, most of which have houses and gardens alongside, are open areas and enclosed spaces. The open areas include the square of The Green, crossed by granite kerbed roads containing the War Memorial, and overlooked by 18th and 19th century houses; the bowling green in Back Street with the detached garden of Ivy House alongside and a garden with mature trees opposite. The churchyard and the church of St. Andrew at the south-east edge of the village forms a notable open area as does the triangle of grass on the main Station Road where Back Lane (formerly the main road to Rugby) drops steeply down. The pair of mid 19th century estate cottages overlooking this triangle forms an attractive break on the main road. The entrances to Back Lane here, and to the very narrow High Street by The Swan Public House are inconspicuous. Throughout the village modern housing has intermingled in the spaces between older housing, adding variety and interest to the existing. Red brick buildings with slate roofs predominate from the tiny former forge in Back Street to the elaborate 19th century brickwork and patterned clay tiles of Nether Hall near the Church. But there is still some thatch in Hawthorne Road and Back Lane. The interspersing of large gardens is a feature, often with red brick walls. The garden gates with stone capped piers at the corner of Back Lane and Hawthorne Lane, opposite the early 18th century North Kilworth Hall, are notable - as are the cast iron railings to the garden opposite Ivy House in Back Lane and the various red brick walls of the village centre.

There is no central point to the village (apart from The Green); the major functional buildings of church and new school are peripheral, whereas the village hall and former Union Chapel and shop are in the straight sections of their roads. The two public houses are on the higher Station Road by the almost inconspicuous roads into the village. It is the unexpected and difference in each of the road sections of the village together with the open spaces of garden or paddock within the village road network and the lack of a cohesive physical or functional form that forms so much of the character of North Kilworth.

North Kilworth Conservation Area map