23 Castle Street
Hinckley, LE10 1DA
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1178354
- Date first listed:
- 10-Aug-1989
- List Entry Name:
- 23 Castle Street
- Statutory Address:
- Hinckley, LE10 1DA
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-10-29
- Reference:
- IOE01/03740/09
- Rights:
- © Mr Keith Wise. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1178354
- Date first listed:
- 10-Aug-1989
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 18-Aug-2021
- List Entry Name:
- 23 Castle Street
- Statutory Address 1:
- Hinckley, LE10 1DA
- Statutory Address 2:
- Hinckley, LE10 1DA
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- Hinckley, LE10 1DA
- Statutory Address:
- Hinckley, LE10 1DA
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Leicestershire
- District:
- Hinckley and Bosworth (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 42737 93917
Summary
Late-C18 to early-C19 house and shop.
Reasons for Designation
23 Castle Street, Hinckley is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a late-C18 to early-C19 house with ground floor shop, retaining architectural features including sash windows, C19 newel post stair and cast-iron fireplace.
Historic interest:
* constructed in the late-C18 to early-C19 the building was erected in a period of expansion for Hinckley and is an important part of the town’s development.
Group value:
* the building possesses group value with other Grade II listed buildings on Castle Street of a similar date which further helps to demonstrate the rapid growth of the town during the period.
History
The market town of Hinckley was relatively small and rural in nature by the C17, with approximately 1000 inhabitants recorded in 1640. The town has been dubbed the ‘home of the hosiery industry’ and it was this industry which saw the town’s rapid expansion, with a population of 4,500 by 1811 with 1,500 mechanical stocking frames installed. New streets were created and areas around Castle Street and The Borough developed, with former farm buildings adapted for industry or commerce and agricultural yards filled with cottages for workers. In the first half of the C19 the growth of Hinckley was stunted by the slowing of the development of the hosiery industry, and poverty in the town was severe. The arrival of the South Leicestershire Railway in 1862 allowed the stocking industry to continue to expand with steam-powered frames and large factories, and the corresponding prosperity allowed the town to expand significantly beyond its historic core.
23 Castle Street is likely to have been constructed in the late-C18 or early-C19 during the period of the town’s rapid expansion. The 1899 trade directory for Hinckley records a draper inhabiting the shop, and a roughly-contemporary historic photograph suggests that the building remained a drapers into the early C20. The photo also shows that the building had four 16-pane fixed casements; photos from the early to mid-C20 show these replaced with eight-over-eight sash windows. 16 pane windows with fine glazing bars have been reinstated at an unknown date. In the late-C20 the shopfront was replaced and the rear of the building extended, replacing a small outshut shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map.
Details
Late-C18 to early-C19 house and shop.
MATERIALS: constructed of brick with a slate roof.
PLAN: the building has two bays and is rectangular on plan with its principal elevation facing north.
EXTERIOR: arranged over three storeys with painted brick in Flemish bond, the upper two storeys each have two 16-pane fixed casements. The windows sit beneath shallow stone segmental arches with keystones. There is a brick end stack to the right-hand side (west) and a dentilled cornice beneath the eaves. The shopfront on the ground floor is a late-C20 replacement with a wide fascia board. The pilasters to either side have been altered but are remnants of an earlier C19 shopfront.
INTERIOR: the ground floor shop has been modernised in the late-C20 and extends into the C20 extension to the rear. The upper storeys of the building have been altered with most fittings removed. A C19 cast-iron fireplace survives in the first-floor room. The newel-post closed-tread stair also dates to the C19 and has turned posts with plain balusters.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 188164
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, (2003), 176
Websites
Hinckley Past and Present, ‘The Buildings of Hinckley’, accessed 19 May 2021 from http://www.hinckleypastpresent.org/hinckleybuildings-descriptions.html
Hinckley Town Centre Conservation Area Appraisal, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, February 2013., accessed 5 May 2021 from https://www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/downloads/file/3244/appraisal-february_2013
Other
Kelly's Directory of Leicestershire & Rutland, 1899 p.92
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 11-Jun-2026 at 07:03:38.
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All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.