Conservation Areas in Harborough district - Walton Conservation Area

Walton lies in flatish clay countryside pastureland dotted by late 18th century regency farmsteads from the enclosure period. It has no church and no stone buildings. The dominant characteristic of the village is the collection of varied cottages along the roads, interspersed with farmhouses and farmsteads and with later infill. Farmhouses with their associated farmyards and outbuildings are alongside raised cottages of the 16th-19th centuries intermingling with later buildings. Early timber framing and thatch have generally been replaced by red brick or slate, though some still exist, but often disguised beneath brick cladding and render. Red brick and slate predominate with many examples of speckled vitrified headers.

The Conservation Area embraces almost the whole of the village including both old buildings and newer infill. The form of the village is three roads meeting at The Cross with a back lane (Park Lane) parallel with the High Street and meeting it in the north with a series of small greens which are registered common land. The centre of the village is the Cross - a short stretch of road between the bifurcation of Hall Lane with Chapel Lane and the junction of Park Lane with the High Street.

A small green in front of The Dog & Gun Public House having a K6 telephone box provides a focal point emphasised by the curve of the thatched and timber-framed Toad Hall. The curved roads of the village followed by the curved frontages of buildings is a characteristic of Walton, especially The Cross.

Walton is an agricultural village with a number of farmsteads or former farmsteads along the village roads and particularly at the extremities of the core area - such as Whitehouse Farm and Poplar Farm and along Back Lane. The timber-framed 16th century Hall in Hall Lane and the more substantial Walton Hall in Chapel Lane indicate the evolution of buildings in the village.

Walton Conservation Area map