Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Theddingworth Conservation Area

Theddingworth is a linear hill top village along the main Lutterworth - Market Harborough Road. The hill sits between the nascent River Welland to the south and a broad clay vale to the north which is followed by the Grand Union Canal and a former railway.

The needle spire of the Church of All Saints is an important landmark rising out of the trees of the settlement above the surrounding landscape. The Conservation Area includes all the older parts of the village, from the Crown Public House in the east to the 1860s estate cottages in the west, together with garden and paddock land on either side of the Main Street. On the north side this includes part of the extensive area of the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Theddingworth shrunken village. On the south side it includes a strip of copse separating garden areas from open countryside. Later 20th century development along the main road to the east of the village has been excluded.

The chief character of the village is its sinuous long main street with spaces and buildings along either side, the buildings sometimes individual, sometimes joined in short terraces, some fronting the street directly others set back varying distances. In general the buildings are of red brick and slate and include cottages as well as more substantial 3 storeyed houses and farm houses, some of the latter with cobbled yards. The principal building material is red brick, for the houses and cottages, for the frontage walls and walls leading back as well as for public buildings. Some of these, especially the 18th century buildings have vitrified headers; later buildings and walls incorporate stone dressings, notably the Village Hall of 1889 and the frontage wall of the former village school, the school itself has decorative dark brick patterns. The predominant roofing material is Welsh slate, though The Crown Public House has Swithland slate and there is some thatch on a timber framed building and clay tiles on some estate cottages.

Trees contribute significantly to the character of the Conservation Area. Halfway along the street are two large and mature beech trees in the garden of Beech Farmhouse; in the churchyard are some mature sycamores. At the entrance to the village from the west at a corner backed by red brick walls is an oak tree. There are many trees in gardens and a cedar in the grounds of the Congregational Church.  

The curves in the street result in a changing streetscape and in various features being prominent. Foremost is the church and churchyard around which the road curves. Granite setts are at the base of the churchyard wall and by the churchyard lychgate entrance which faces directly down the Main Street. These latter are partially covered by asphalt. Granite is also in the street kerbs. The double bend at the west end of the street brings different buildings into prominence. These included the estate Cottages at the west edge of the village, the small village hall on the corner of Back Lane, and the 19th century black and white decorated lodge style building. Further east along the Main Street are the stone capped shoulders of the external chimney stack of the regency Compton House and the red brick wall fronting the open space opposite the church.

A feature of Theddingworth village are the varied 19th century estate cottages. Some as Bank Cottages at the west end are prominent, others as those of 1851 in Station Road and Pebble Cottages in Hothorpe Road are more secluded. The latter are special, being 6 back-to-back cottages built in 1829 for the Hothorpe Estate. The pebble construction emulates Norfolk flint because the Hothorpe Estate was connected with the Coke family of Holkham. Another feature is the broken nature of development within the compact linear form of the settlement. Open spaces such as the churchyard and paddock opposite, gardens, and the ground of the little Congregational Church are interspersed along the street with farms and houses and cottages.

Theddingworth Conservation Area map