A Conservation Area is a locality of special architectural or historic interest, usually a particular part of a village or town. For many places, the local authority has published individual appraisals of existing or potential conservation areas. These detailed reports review topics such as the historical development of the area, its particular character, archaeological potential and notable buildings. This information combined with the sources that the report refers to can provide rich material for historical research. In most cases, they offer considerably more about a place than can be found simply by reading the descriptions of its listed buildings that may be available from Historic England.
Appraisal reports are usually very well-illustrated. They can be downloaded, normally as free PDFs, from the sites of these local authorities which serve different parts of the historic county of Northamptonshire:
A detailed discussion of issues relating to the production of village appraisals, with case studies of Brixworth, Stoke Albany and Dingley, can be found in: