Kibworth is an area of the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, that contains two

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

es: the villages of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt . At the 2011 census, Kibworth Beauchamp had a population of 5,433 and Kibworth Harcourt 990. The villages are divided by the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...

. Kibworth is close to Foxton Locks,

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the adm ...

, and Leicester.

History

Kibworth Beauchamp High Street - geograph

In 1270

Walter de Merton Walter de Merton ( – 27 October 1277) was Lord Chancellor of England, Archdeacon of Bath, founder of Merton College, Oxford, and Bishop of Rochester. For the first two years of the reign of Edward I he was - in all but name - Regent of England d ...

, the founder of Merton College, Oxford, bought a large part of the parish of Kibworth Harcourt from Saer de Harcourt, who had been forced to sell the estate after giving his support to the unsuccessful "

Second Barons' War The Second Barons' War (1264–1267) was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort against the royalist forces of King Henry III, led initially by the king himself and later by his son, the fu ...

" led by

Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

. Much of the parish has remained the property of Merton College, Oxford to the present day. There is a stained-glass window depicting Walter de Merton in the bell tower of the parish church, St Wilfrid's, of which the warden and scholars of the college are joint patrons with the

Bishop of Leicester The Bishop of Leicester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Leicester in the Province of Canterbury. Through reorganisation within the Church of England, the Diocese of Leicester was refounded in 1927, and St Martin's Church ...

. The church is a Grade II* listed building. A village school was founded in 1709, and endowed by Sir Nathaniel Edwards. Kibworth Harcourt was the birthplace of the writer/reformer

Anna Laetitia Barbauld Anna Laetitia Barbauld (, by herself possibly , as in French, Aikin; 20 June 1743 – 9 March 1825) was a prominent English poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and author of children's literature. A " woman of letters" who published in mu ...

(1743–1825) and her brother John Aikin. Their father, John Aikin (1713–1780), kept a

dissenting academy The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and seminaries (often institutions with aspects of all three) run by English Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the Church of England. They formed a significant part of England's edu ...

there and served as minister of a nearby

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

chapel. The family moved in 1757 to

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. On 23 July 1825 the ancient tower and spire of St Wilfrid's collapsed.

Michael Wood's ''Story of England''

In September 2010, Kibworth was the central feature of ''

Michael Wood's Story of England ''Michael Wood's Story of England'' is a six-part BBC documentary series written and presented by Michael Wood and airing from 22 September 2010. It tells the story of one place, the Leicestershire village of Kibworth, throughout the whole of En ...

'', a documentary aired on both BBC Four, BBC Two, and repeated on the

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...

channel Yesterday, and PBS America, presented by Michael Wood about the history of England framed through Kibworth. A book of the same name was published by

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

. The series was likened to '' Who Do You Think You Are?'' for a whole community. Villagers (Kibworth Improvement Team - KiT) have created a new website and successfully requested a grant of £48,200 from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

to continue the legacy of the TV series by creating a Kibworth Guide Booklet (heritage trails for Kibworth Harcourt, Kibworth Beauchamp and

Smeeton Westerby Smeeton Westerby is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district, located approximately nine miles south east from Leicester. Smeeton Westerby is situated in the Leicestershire countryside. It is close to Saddington, Kibworth and Flec ...

), several interpretation panels around the three villages, ongoing study materials for the three tiers of local schools, and an Archive (Virtual Museum).

Facilities

Kibworth has a number of shops, a community newspaper (''The Kibworth & District Chronicle''), and since 2002 new shops, including a branch of the

Co-Op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

. New housing continues to be built on the edge of the village, causing periodic controversy. The Bookshop, which opened in the High Street in 2009, won a regional award for Independent Bookseller of The Year in 2012.

Transport

Arriva Midlands Arriva Midlands is a bus operator providing services in the East Midlands and West Midlands areas of England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus. Arriva Midlands North Operations In September 1981 Midland Red North was formed with 230 bu ...

operates Sapphire route X3 between Leicester and Market Harborough and

Stagecoach Midlands Stagecoach Midlands operates most bus routes in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire; the legal name for the company is Midland Red (South) Ltd.The company was previously split into ''Midland Red'' in Warwickshire and ''United Counties Omnibus'' ...

route X7 between Leicester and Northampton, both via the village. The

runs through the area, but Kibworth railway station, which served both villages, closed in 1968.

Sports

The local cricket club won the ECB National Club Cricket Championship in 2004. The association football club, previously Kibworth and Smeeton, was renamed in 2018 as Kibworth Town, merging the younger and senior teams together. The village also has clubs for snooker, tennis, golf, bowls and dance. Kibworth is also home to Kibworth Rugby Stars, a children's rugby club serving ages 18 months to 6 years.

Kibworth Harcourt Mill

The mill, a Grade 2*

listed structure In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, last worked in the 1930s and until 1936 was owned by Merton College, Oxford, then ownership and responsibility was transferred to the

Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) (also known as Anti-Scrape) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in ...

(SPAB). As of March 2022, restoration costing £350,000 is close to completion. With parts dating from "at least 1711", it is the last surviving

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

in Leicestershire county.

Notable residents

In birth order: * John Aikin (1713–1780), Unitarian preacher, schoolteacher and father of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, lived and taught in Kibworth in 1730–58. *

(née Aikin, 1743–1823), poet, essayist, children's author and daughter of John Aikin, was born in Kibworth Harcourt. * John Aikin (1747–1822), physician, biographer and brother of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, was born in Kibworth Harcourt. * James Beresford (1764–1840), Anglican cleric and humorist, was rector of Kibworth from 1812 until his death in 1840. *Colonel John Worthy Chaplin (1840–1920), awarded the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

for gallantry in 1860 in the

Second China War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

, was buried in Kibworth New Cemetery. * Edmund Knox (1847–1937), Anglican bishop, Evangelical writer and father of

Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957) was an English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a high reputation as a classicist, Knox wa ...

, was rector of Kibworth in 1884–1891. *

Samuel Perkins Pick Samuel Perkins Pick (1858Samuel Perkins Pick FRIBA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011. Accessed 11 April 2016. – 23 May 1919) wa ...

(1858–1919), architect, was educated at Kibworth Grammar School. * T. E. R. Phillips (1868–1942), Anglican cleric and astronomer specializing in planets, was born in Kibworth. * Wilfred Knox (1886–1950), Anglican theologian and brother of Ronald Knox, was born in Kibworth. *

(1888–1957),

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

monsignor and religious writer, was born in Kibworth. * Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley (1906–2001), inventor of the

Intraocular lens Intraocular lens (IOL) is a lens (optics), lens implanted in the human eye, eye as part of a treatment for cataracts or myopia. If the natural lens is left in the eye, the IOL is known as Phakic intraocular lens, phakic, otherwise it is a pseudop ...

, was born in Kibworth. * Stu Williamson (born 1956), photographer, inventor of the Tri-flector, and drummer for the Scottish group

The Marmalade Marmalade are a Scottish pop rock band originating from the east end of Glasgow, originally formed in 1961 as The Gaylords, and then later billed as Dean Ford and The Gaylords, recording four singles for Columbia (EMI). In 1966 they changed th ...

, is based in Kibworth.

References

External links

A History of Kibworth
{{Authority control Villages in Leicestershire Harborough District