Kibworth is an area of the Harborough district of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire ...

, 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 Foxton Locks () are ten canal locks consisting of two "staircases" each of five locks, located on the Leicester line of the Grand Union Canal about west of the Leicestershire town of Market Harborough. They are named after the nearby village of ...

, Market Harborough, and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

History

Kibworth Beauchamp High Street - geograph

In 1270 Walter de Merton, 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. Much of the parish has remained the property of

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

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 church is a

Grade II* listed 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 I ...

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 John Aikin (15 January 1747 – 7 December 1822) was an English medical doctor and surgeon. Later in life he devoted himself wholly to biography and writing in periodicals. Life He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of ...

. Their father,

(1713–1780), kept a dissenting academy 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 n ...

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'', a documentary aired on both

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

, 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 throug ...

channel Yesterday, and

PBS America PBS America is a British free-to-air television channel derived from the American public television broadcaster PBS. Similar to the BBC and Channel 4, it is a joint venture between entrepreneur David Lyons and PBS Distribution, a joint venture ...

, presented by Michael Wood about the

history of England England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). BBC News. Retrieved 7 February ...

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 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 Fleckn ...

), 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. 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 operates Sapphire route X3 between Leicester and Market Harborough and Stagecoach Midlands 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 The ECB National Club Cricket Championship is a forty over limited overs knockout club cricket competition in England. The most successful clubs have been Scarborough, from North Yorkshire, with five titles and Old Hill, from Staffordshire, with ...

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, last worked in the 1930s and until 1936 was owned by

, then ownership and responsibility was transferred to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (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 ...

in Leicestershire county.

Notable residents

In birth order: *

(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. *

(1747–1822), physician, biographer and brother of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, was born in Kibworth Harcourt. * James Beresford (1764–1840),

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

cleric and humorist, was rector of Kibworth from 1812 until his death in 1840. *Colonel

John Worthy Chaplin Colonel John Worthy Chaplin, (23 July 1840 – 18 August 1920) was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth fo ...

(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 previousl ...

for gallantry in 1860 in the Second China War, was buried in Kibworth New Cemetery. * Edmund Knox (1847–1937), Anglican bishop, Evangelical writer and father of Ronald Knox, was rector of Kibworth in 1884–1891. * Samuel Perkins Pick (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 Wilfred Lawrence Knox (1886–1950) was an English Anglican priest and theologian, one of four brothers who distinguished themselves. After leaving Oxford with a first-class honours degree in classics, Knox soon began working with the poor of Lon ...

(1886–1950), Anglican theologian and brother of Ronald Knox, was born in Kibworth. * Ronald Knox (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, is based in Kibworth.

References

External links

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