Adopted February 2011 Local Development Framework Ratby Village Design Statement Supplementary Planning Document CONTENTS page 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 THE VILLAGE CONTEXT 5 3.0 SETTLEMENT PATTERN 11 3.1 Zone A: The Conservation Area 13 3.2 Zone B: Station Road, Park Road, Desford Lane, Mill Drive, Taverner Drive, Brook Drive 20 3.3 Zone C: Markfield Road, Charnwood & Stamford Street 28 3.4 Zone D: Church Farm Development 39 4.0 LANDSCAPE SETTING & WILDLIFE 47 5.0 GREEN SPACES HEDGES, WALLS & FENCES 54 6.0 HIGHWAYS, TRAFFIC AND FOOTPATHS 56 Ratby Village Design Statement 1.0 INTRODUCTION The Ratby Village Design Statement (VDS) sets Who the Statement is for? out the principles, design features and quality The Ratby Design Statement has been developed standards that should be adopted by those for: wishing to build, modify or extend property in the settlement of Ratby. • The Parish and Borough Councils’ Planning Committees as a Supplementary Planning Residents of Ratby and the Parish Council have Document to the Hinckley and Bosworth developed the Village Design Statement with Local Plan. support from officers of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council and the Leicestershire and • Developers, their architects and designers, to Rutland Rural Community Council. The Village explain what the community of Ratby expect Design Statement forms part of the planning to see in new and modified buildings. policy framework used by the Borough Council in • Local residents, to help them keep alterations making decisions on planning applications. and extensions in sympathy with the The aim of the VDS is to support various local character of Ratby. planning policy and associated legislation, and once adopted will become a Supplementary How should the Statement be used? Planning Document (SPD) to be used in the day to day assessment of planning applications for The Ratby Village Design Statement should be Ratby. This SPD provides local guidance for used to inform the formulation of designs to planning officers, developers, parish councils and build, modify or extend property in the the public and supplements and expands on settlement regardless of scale. adopted design policies of the current Local Plan and emerging Local Development Framework. 3 the revision and preparation of this final SPD. Full details of the comments and officer responses can be viewed on the Consultation Responses Report on the Councils website at: www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk Ratby Village Design Statement The Village Design Statement is intended to promote the following design process: • A survey of the relationship between the site / property and its surroundings, working with and respecting what is already there; • Identification of the design opportunities presented by existing views, landscaping, built form, materials and details; • Confirmation, in plan form, that this design process has been fully observed. The Ratby Village Design Statement does not VDS display at Crow Pie Carnival attempt to provide design solutions but rather to highlight the distinctive elements and characteristics of Ratby that should be considered in any new design. In addition, the VDS does not determine the location of development, nor prevent allocation which is the duty of the Local Plan and the Local Development Framework. Instead it aims to help manage change and development if and when it occurs. Ratby village is a living entity and the design characteristics that are now so important to the community have evolved over time. New development cannot and should not be disguised but with thought and a sympathetic approach, the new can complement and even enhance the old. Location Ratby’s administrative base is; Ratby Parish Council (RPC), Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) and Leicestershire County Council (LCC). 4 Ratby Village Design Statement 2.0 THE VILLAGE CONTEXT 2.1 Geographical and Historical Background 2.1.1 Geographical Location Ratby is a village of circa 4100 population, situated 5 miles to the west of Leicester, on the southern edge of Charnwood Forest and is Ratby from the south-west separated from adjacent settlements by open Mudstone series. These are overlain by glacial countryside which gives it distinctiveness and deposits such as boulder clay, sands and gravels. individuality. Many walls in the village are built of Charnwood The settlement boundary is very clearly stones and slates. Local clays gave rise to 19th demarcated from the surrounding countryside, century brickworks in Ratby and neighbouring most of which comprises farmland and villages so that brick is a common building woodland, especially to the west. Burroughs material. Road brings a valuable corridor of this The highest ground in Ratby is c.160 metres countryside right into the heart of the village. above sea level near to the NW boundary with Ancient Charnian rocks outcrop in Martinshaw Markfield, from where there are excellent views Wood but the predominant rocks are clays, back towards Ratby Church and into East marlstones and red sandstones of the Mercian Leicestershire. Map 1 © Crown copyright. All rights reserved Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council LA100018489 Published 2009 Key: Ratby Parish Boundary 5 Ratby Village Design Statement 2.1.2 History The Parish Church of St. Philip and St. James was built in 1230 with additions in the 14th, 15th and Origins 19th centuries. It occupies a prominent site, Ratby was first mentioned as "Rotebie" in the clearly visible from all the surrounding area. Domesday Book of 1086. However, the present nucleated village dates back to Anglo-Saxon The "figure-of-8" street pattern of the mediaeval times (700-800 AD) when the first dwellings were village is still clearly evident in the landscape. built alongside a church sited on a hill Within the parish there is evidence of a 13th overlooking the Rothley Brook. It is thought that century moated farm at Old Hays, the mediaeval Ratby was probably a "Royal Vil" controlling a Burgh deer park, the manorial boundaries large Anglo-Saxon estate stretching from the between Whitwick/Groby and Bagworth Manors, west of Leicester to Desford and Markfield. the site of a holy well at Holywell Farm, a There has been settlement within the present deserted village at Whittington and well parish boundary from even earlier times. There preserved 13th, 16th and 18th century enclosures. are Celtic/Romano ramparts at Bury Camp, These, together with the Celtic-Romano Bury approximately 1 mile west of the centre of Ratby. Camp make the area west of Ratby a most It is thought that the name "Ratby" was derived valuable local heritage site. from the Celtic "rath" meaning "earthen ramparts" 18th Century or "fort" and the Danish "bie" meaning "farmstead” or "village", i.e. "the village next to the fort". The Enclosure Act of 1770 led to the establishment of many of the field boundaries, Mediaeval roads and footpaths in the present landscape. During mediaeval times Ratby was an agricultural Farming and wealth were concentrated in fewer village with an economy based upon the three- families and alternative sources of income such field system. as framework knitting began to expand. Map 2 - Enclosure map 1773 Ratby Parish Church 6 Ratby Village Design Statement 19th Century As a result of all these developments, population The coming of the Leicester & Swannington tripled between 1801 and 1901. In the early- th Railway in1832 encouraged the further middle 19 century, there were few establishment of hosiery and boot and shoe opportunities for building new houses outside industries in the village. The settlement area the existing settlement area. Therefore additional expanded along Station Road between the old homes were created by the construction of small core of the village and the station and wharf to cottages for workers inside existing gardens and the south. In 1904 the parish boundary was yards. An example of high building density redrawn to include the station area. caused by the shortage of land can be seen outside Sills Yard, opposite the War Memorial on The first small hosiery factory was built in 1861 at Main Street. Some of the original yards can still the junction of Stamford Street and Main Street. be recognised in the village. This still survives, albeit recently converted to residences. The enclosure awarded to Josiah Grudgeon by the Enclosure Act of 1770 was sold in 1845. Housing and a large factory were built there between 1883 and 1909 to create Stamford Street. In the late 19th/early 20th century, quarries were expanded at Groby and coalmines were sunk in the Desford area. Sills Yard - High building density Map 3 - OS map 1886 7 Ratby Village Design Statement 1900 - 1945 Houses and then by semi-detached council Ratby continued to be a relatively self-sufficient houses on the north side of Markfield Road. The village before World War 2. The Trade Directories first house on Groby Road was the Vicarage for 1936 show that there were still plentiful (1904), a large detached building in Charnwood opportunities for local employment even for an Stone. A brick cottage was built for Holywell Farm expanding population of approximately 2000 on Desford Lane in the mid-1930s. people. 1945 - 1980 Despite the population growth, there was still The period since 1945 has seen great changes. very little building encroachment onto farmland Immediately after 1945 the urgent need to re- before 1945 and people were still living in the house people from unsanitary premises small "yard" cottages until after World War Two. coincided with the beginnings of the demise of Between the wars, new detached and semi- farming in the area. The first land to be sold off in detached houses with large gardens began to the late 1940s was Hollybush Farm on Main Street, infill the remaining spaces along the main roads, so that the Charnwood Estate, a mixture of e.g.