Historical relicts show that Husbands Bosworth was once a well connected village. The parish boasted two watermills to support the once thriving agricultural industry.
RUGBY TO STAMFORD RAILWAY
The Rugby to Stamford branch of the London and North Western Railway, which passed to the north of Husbands Bosworth was opened in 1850, and was Market Harborough’s first railway connection. It is thought that the railway company wanted to build a station at Husbands Bosworth, where the line crossed under the Leicester Road. However, opposition to this proposal from the owners of Highcroft House, who objected to the prospect of having a station close to their estate, drove the company to move the site of the station to North Kilworth.
Much of the route of the line can still be traced sweeping through the open countryside from Stanford on Avon, and crossing the A4304 at North Kilworth. The line shadows the Grand Union Canal as it skirts Bosworth and Theddingworth towards Lubenham, where it re-crossed the Harborough road on a brick-arched bridge. A favourite route for holidaymakers from the industrial areas of Coventry and Birmingham, with rail connections to the East Coast resorts, and also an important rural freight link through the Welland Valley, the line closed in the 1960’s, a victim of Dr. Beeching’s economic scalpel.
HUSBANDS BOSWORTH MILL
The present mill buildings are situated between the river Avon and the Welford Arm of the Grand Union Canal. The buildings have been much altered and converted into accommodation in recent times. Earthworks upstream of the mill site in the pastureland indicate the line of the old mill race. A mill at this site was mentioned in the Domesday survey.
[See Leicestershire Water-mills by Norman Ashton, Sycamore Press 1976.]
WELFORD MILL
There was also a watermill upstream of Husbands Bosworth mill, adjacent to the site of the Welford Lock on the Welford Arm of the Grand Union Canal. An accommodation lift bridge which used to serve access to the mill site crossed the canal about 30m. to the west of Welford Lock. The abutments and balance beam post of this bridge can still be seen on the canal bank, and earthworks relating to the foundations of the Mill can be found in pastureland opposite, close to the site of the present canal lock. Welford Mill was actually in Husbands Bosworth parish; the parish and county boundary being the river Avon.