Chaddesley Corbett Conservation Area

Chaddesley Corbett Conservation Area was designated in 1969. It is based upon a rural hamlet or small village that lies either side of a gently curving street, which forms a spur to the main Kidderminster to Bromsgrove Road.

In many ways, Chaddesley Corbett typifies the image of a quaint and idyllic English village. It contains a few shops, two pubs, a primary school and a 12th Century Parish Church. It has existed as an important agricultural settlement since Saxon times (then just Chaddesley) and was laid out in more or less its present form by a Norman family, the Corbetts.

The majority of buildings in the Conservation Area are Listed, the oldest being the Church; whilst many date from the 17th and 18th Century. A few sensitively designed 20th Century buildings add to the mixture.

The building styles in the village include timber-framed black and white, polite red brick Georgian and a hint of picturesque Gothic. The pattern of development is largely back of pavement and facing the street, with few gaps in the frontage. Many traditional plot boundaries and outbuildings survive intact. The majority of buildings are of two stories and roofing materials are predominantly clay tiles.

There are important spaces at either end of the village. At the southern end, on the west side, an old orchard provides an open setting for the church and views up the main street. Opposite this, on the east side, the grounds to Hunter's Ride balance the undeveloped entrance to the village. At the northern end of the village is an undeveloped gap between the old settlement and a more recent housing estate adjoining Briar Hill. From the north the village begins at Brook Cottage and the modern development on Hemming Way. Brook Cottage has pleasant surroundings balanced by open grazing land opposite. It is important to maintain the character of Chaddesley Corbett as that of a tightly packed settlement with a definite beginning and end, set in open countryside.

There is an absence of street lighting in the area, which helps it retain a rural and uncluttered feel.