Kibworth Street Names
Further along the Fleckney Road from Kibworth village centre, one passes on the left the new Kibworth Cricket Club and on the right Kibworth Bowls Club which before its move was behind the Fire Station.
Avian friends
Continuing along the Fleckney Road you encounter the recently built Cuckoo Drive estate, the main distributor road which obviously has been named after our avian friends along with Wagtail Avenue, Lapwing Lane, Wren Close and the meandering Robin Drive.
Liberal politicians
The footpath leads to another part of this estate with Lloyd George Avenue, Chamberlain Close, Balfour Drive, Asquith Drive, Churchill Avenue and MacKenna Close which are named after senior Liberal politicians of the early 20th century;some more successful than others.
Historical fields and byways
Over the railway bridge one comes to what is known locally as the ‘new’ estate with names like Longbreach, Thackney Leys, Barnards Way, Powell Road, Glebe Road and Dairy Way among others
These are very interesting names and I have turned my attention to Dr Cicely Howell’s book-cum-thesis entitled:
‘Land Family & Inheritance in Transition: Kibworth Harcourt 1280 -1700’.
In her book, which is an accumulation of her research, Cicely has, on page 84, produced a detailed Kibworth field map dated 1780, following the enclosure act of 1773, which shows the land between Burton Bridge (Brook)(still on the A6) and Carrs Gate (which I believe we today call the Wistow Road). This drawing identifies the field names of Longbreach, Thackney Leys, Mill Day Furlong and a feature called William Barnard’s Hedge. Carrs Gate eventually crosses the stream at Cole Bridge Ford which I believe is roughly a couple of hundred yards past where Bridge House Barn stands on the Leicester Line Canal. (See the photograph of Cicely’s drawing)
Currently Barnards Way follows the old Warwick Road that was merely a track as recently as 1990.
(If any of these facts are incorrect or you know of an alternative route to these names perhaps you can inform me via.
theeditor@kibworthchronicle.com).
Kibworth & District Heritage Society.
Cicely Howell’s book was first printed by Cambridge University Press in 1983 and still available. ISNB is 978-0-521-14251-9 (paperback)
