Swinford, Leicestershire

Swinford Preceptory is a former monastery of the Knights Hospitaller located near to the village of Swinford, Leicestershire.

The Catthorpe Interchange is a major intersection at the southern end of the M6, the western end of the A14 and junction 19 of the M1 near the village of Catthorpe in Leicestershire, England. It was developed in 1994 when the link to the A14 was added to the pre-existing M1/M6 junction by joining the M1, M6 and A14 to the country lane between Catthorpe and Swinford as part of the Trans European Road Network,.The interchange currently handles over 157,000 vehicles per day and as the previous layout was overloaded and had a poor safety record, improvements were required. Traffic attempting to avoid the interchange caused congestion and nuisance in nearby towns and villages. The Highways Agency acknowledged that the layout of the interchange resulted in a serious accident problem, inconvenience for those wishing to travel between villages in the area, and delays and congestion for both motorway and non-motorway traffic. In January 2014, the work on upgrading the junction to a new free-flowing layout began. The final phase, the local link road, was opened to traffic on 22 December 2016.

Lilbourne railway station was a railway station serving Lilbourne and nearby Catthorpe in Leicestershire, England. It was on the Rugby and Stamford Railway between Clifton Mill and Yelvertoft and Stanford Park. In 1846, the directors of the London and Birmingham Railway gained Parliamentary powers for a branch from Rugby to the Syston and Peterborough Railway near Stamford. In the same year the company became part of the London and North Western Railway. The section from Rugby via Lilbourne to Market Harborough was opened in 1850. The line through Lilbourne was single track until it was doubled at the end of 1878.The 1923 grouping made the LNWR part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway. British Railways closed the station in 1966. All that remains is the trackbed and a platform.

Greenhaven Woodland Burial Ground is a natural burial ground located in the village of Lilbourne, 5 miles (8 km) from the town of Rugby, England. It opened in 1994 and was the first privately owned natural burial ground in the country. Greenhaven is situated on 14 acres (57,000 m2) of former agricultural land and originally catered for approximately 7,000 plots, but as of 8 December 2008, roughly 5,000 of these remain.

Stanford Park is a 20.4 hectares (50 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Swinford in Leicestershire.The park has avenues of oak trees, together with other large trees in an area of pasture. It has the most diverse lichens in the county on the bark of mature trees and on old stonework, including fifteen species not recorded elsewhere in Leicestershire.The park is the grounds of Stanford Hall, a stately home which is open to the public.

Lilbourne is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire in England. It is close to the M1 motorway which runs east of the village, and the A5 road, west of the village which marks the boundary with Warwickshire, slightly to the north is the River Avon which marks the boundary with Leicestershire (the three counties meeting at Dow Bridge). At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 254 people, increasing to 273 at the 2011 Census, and further to 305 at the 2021 census.

Stanford Hall is a stately home in Leicestershire, England, near the village of Stanford on Avon (which is in Northamptonshire) and the town of Lutterworth, Leicestershire. The population of any residents in the area is included in the civil parish of Misterton with Walcote.

Catthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It is located beside the River Avon and close to the A5 road, and hence close to the tripoint at Dow Bridge formed by Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire; the nearest towns are Rugby, in Warwickshire around 4 miles (6.4 km) to the southwest, and Lutterworth around 4 miles (6.4 km) to the north. At the 2001 Census, the parish had a population of 179, falling slightly to 173 at the 2011 census, further decreasing to 156 at the 2021 census.The name 'Catthorpe' is made up of 'thorpe' meaning 'outlying farm/settlement' and 'Cat'. 'Cat' was probably added after Isabel le Cat and Simon Mallore donated the land to Leicester Abbey.Catthorpe gives its name to the nearby Catthorpe Interchange road junction formed by the M1 and M6 motorways and the A14 road, which was known to be regularly congested owing to its non-standard design. The A14 passed under both motorways; these underpasses were built in the 1960s for the former A427, which passed through Catthorpe. Between 2014 and 2016 the interchange was the subject of a major redesign to reduce the congestion and improve safety by providing free-flowing links and removing direct access from the local road network.Between 1850 and 1966 Catthorpe was served by the nearby Lilbourne railway station on the now dismantled Rugby to Peterborough Line Catthorpe briefly came to national attention in 1999 when the Latvian alleged war criminal Konrāds Kalējs was revealed to be living at Catthorpe Manor, a nursing home near the village. The parish church, dedicated to St Thomas, dates from the 14th century and is Grade II* listed, but is currently on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register as being in a 'vary bad' state due to masonry defects and heritage crime. There is a village pub called the Cherry Tree and farm shop and restaurant, both are located on Main Street.

Yelvertoft and Stanford Park railway station was a railway station serving the villages of Stanford-on-Avon and Yelvertoft in the English county of Northamptonshire and the stately home of Stanford Hall nearby in Leicestershire. It was opened as Stanford Hall on the Rugby and Stamford Railway in 1850. Parliamentary approval was gained in 1846 by the directors of the London and Birmingham Railway for a branch from Rugby to the Syston and Peterborough Railway near Stamford. In the same year the company became part of the London and North Western Railway. The section from Rugby to Market Harborough, which included Yelvertoft, opened in 1850. Originally single track, it was doubled at the end of 1878.At grouping in 1923 it became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

Stanford-on-Avon is a village in the civil parish of Stanford in West Northamptonshire, England. It lies next to the River Avon, which here forms the county boundary between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. On the Leicestershire side of the river is Stanford Hall, a historic house. Stanford Reservoir is one mile north of the village. The population is included in the civil parish of Clay Coton. The hamlet's name means 'Stone ford' situated on the River Avon.In a field just north-east of the village there is a stone monument to Percy Pilcher, a 19th century aviation pioneer who died in a glider accident at the location of the monument in 1899.The village was formerly served by Yelvertoft and Stanford Park railway station on the former Rugby and Stamford Railway which closed in 1966. The station is now a private house.Stanford-on-Avon is now the only populated settlement within the civil parish of Stanford. The parish contains the remains of two deserted medieval villages of Downtown and Stanford.

Westrill and Starmore is a civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It has no settlement as such as it is one of the least populated parishes in Harborough District, comprising farmland surrounding the track from Stanford Park to Walcote village in the parish of Misterton with Walcote. The parish is located in the south of the county, on the border with Northamptonshire, between the parishes of Swinford and South Kilworth. The principal building in the parish is Stanford Hall, Leicestershire. To the south-east it faces the Northamptonshire parish of Stanford-on-Avon, across the River Avon. The parish is the location of a planning application for eleven wind turbines which is to be the subject of a public inquiry in July 2009.

Shawell is a small village in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. Its population at the 2001 UK census was 126, increasing to 162 at the 2011 census. It lies less than a mile from the M1 and M6 motorways. The site of the Roman town of Tripontium is on the A5 (Watling Street), west of the village. Near to the church are the earthwork remains of a motte and bailey castle. The Great Central main railway line, the last main line to be built from the north of England to London, was opened on 15 March 1899 and ran just to the west of Shawell, mainly in a deep cutting where an important signal box was also sited. Although there was never a station at Shawell, one was proposed a little way to the south-west where the line crossed over the A5 and would have been named "Watling Street". The station, which would have lain roughly at the midpoint between Rugby and Lutterworth, was never built however, and the line closed on 5 May 1969, the cutting now being partly filled in.