Estate Agents Covering Ibstock

Today, Ibstock is a sizeable, thriving small town which sits about 15 miles north west of Leicester.

It’s a place with a long history that goes at least as far back as the Domesday Book, with the parish church of St Denys tracing back to the 1170s. Though at that time, the place was mostly composed of rural hamlets with little in the way of industry.

Coal changed the town more than almost anything else. Two collieries were sunk in the parish in 1825 and 1873, and the population grew quickly as miners and their families moved in. This growth brought half a dozen chapels, several of which still stand on the High Street and Chapel Street today.

Brickmaking grew up alongside mining, and the former colliery brickworks became Ibstock Brick, once one of Britain’s largest producers of bricks. The last local pit closed in 1991, and much of the former mining land north of the area has since been planted with young woodland as part of the National Forest.

As a town built up along a single main road rather than a railway, getting around Ibstock is mostly about the car, though bus services do connect it to the surrounding towns.

• Car & Road: Ibstock sits directly on the A447, which links Hinckley in the south to Coalville in the north, with a secondary route towards Barlestone and Nailstone. From Coalville, you’ll find roads connecting you to Leicester and on to the M1. Driving into Leicester city centre takes around 25 mins, and Hinckley is roughly 20 minutes away by car.
• Bus: Several bus services run through Ibstock, linking it to Coalville, Ashby de la Zouch and Leicester, though most journeys into Leicester can mean changing buses at Coalville. Local buses stop close to the centre of the town.
• Train: Ibstock has been without its own station since Heather and Ibstock station closed to passengers in 1931. The nearest mainline stations now are Hinckley and Leicester. Hinckley is around 8 miles away on the line between Leicester and Birmingham, while Leicester itself is about 14 miles away and sits on the Midland Main Line through to London St Pancras.

While Ibstock is an historical settlement, most of its housing stock is more modern, with much of it established over the Victorian period. Take a look at the details below:

Property styles in Ibstock: Ibstock’s housing mostly grew out of its 19th and 20th century years as a mining and brickmaking town, so expect plenty of Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis built from local brick, especially around the High Street, Chapel Street and Gladstone Street.

Around the edges of the town, later 20th century and more recent estates add three and four bedroom semi-detached and detached homes, while a handful of older farmhouses and cottages survive from before the mining era, particularly on the approach roads out towards Ravenstone and Heather.

The higher end of the market tends to cluster around newer estates like Chandlers Croft and Mill Hill Wood Way, where larger four and five bedroom detached homes are present.

Everyday life in Ibstock centres on the High Street, home to most of the town’s independent shops, with the Co-op supermarket a short walk away on Ashby Road rather than a shopping centre or retail park within the location itself.

Most of what people need day to day sits within walking distance of the older streets around Chapel Street and Gladstone Street.

Shopping: The High Street carries most of Ibstock’s independent shopping and its post office, while the Co-op supermarket covers the weekly food shop. For anything beyond the everyday, Coalville and its bigger shopping options are a short drive north, with Leicester covering anything more significant.

Eating & Drinking: Ibstock has kept hold of several long standing pubs. The Whimsey Inn and the Ram Inn have served the area for generations, and cafes and takeaways around the High Street cover the rest of day to day eating out.

Ibstock’s landmarks trace its long history, from its early beginnings through to it’s later development as a coal and brick town – and many of these places are worth a visit if you plan to live locally.

Church of St Denys: Ibstock’s Grade II* listed parish church dates from the early 14th century, though a church has stood on the site since at least the 1170s. Its rector from 1617 to 1626 was William Laud, who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is listed by Historic England alongside the Paget family tombs in its churchyard.

Sence Valley Forest Park: Once an opencast coal mine, this Forestry England site north of the town has been replanted with over 100,000 trees since the mine closed in 1996. Walking trails, fishing lakes and picnic spots now sit where coal was once dug from the ground.

The 1620s House and Garden: Just outside Coalville, this Leicestershire County Council museum is based in a manor house dating from around 1290, thought to be one of the oldest surviving houses in the county, with recreated 17th century gardens.