Litchborough is a historic village and

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 300 people,Office for National Statistics: Litchborough CP: Parish headcounts
Retrieved 11 December 2009 increasing to 321 at the 2011 Census. The villages name probably means, 'enclosure hill'. The manor of Litchborough, and that of nearby Weedon Pinkney, belonged in the fourteenth century to the Wale family, and passed by descent to the Malorre family. More recently, new built housing has increased the number of dwellings to 111 and the population to 449. It is about north-west of

Towcester Towcester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative centre of the South Northamptonshire district. Towcester is on ...

, 2 miles off the A5 on the Banbury Road. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

is dedicated to St Martin. The village has an active Village Hall and a pub, the Old Red Lion. The village has a well supported Parish Council chaired by Tim Sykes of the Old Rectory, a businessman who chaired the hostel sector hospitality company Beds & Bars. Gareth Lugar-Mawson, a retired High Court Judge who has served in Hong Kong and Brunei, also serves on the Parish Council. There is an informative village community website - litchborough.org.uk - with local news, details of events and Parish Council information.

Litchborough Hall

Litchborough Hall is the home of Bob Heygate, who was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1997 and who, with cousin Paul Heygate, owns and runs the landmark Heygates Mill at Bugbrooke and the Fine Lady Bakery at Banbury. In June 1603

Lady Anne Clifford Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery, ''suo jure'' 14th Baroness de Clifford (30 January 1590 – 22 March 1676) was an English peeress. In 1605 she inherited her father's ancient barony by writ and became ''suo jure'' ...

stayed at Litchborough Hall, the home of Elizabeth Nedham, who had been a member of the household of Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick.

Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford ( Harington; 1581–1627) was a major aristocratic patron of the arts and literature in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, the primary non-royal performer in contemporary court masques, a letter-writer, and a ...

met her and they rode to Dingley Hall to meet

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I. She was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and List of English royal consorts, Queen of Engl ...

. The house was extensively reworked in 1838 in Tudor style by the architect George Moore.Litchborough Hall, Historic England
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References

Villages in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District Civil parishes in Northamptonshire {{Northamptonshire-geo-stub