Cosby

Situated at what is now the southern end of this expanded village, the church with its elegant recessed spire dates for the greater part from the earlier 15th century. An oddity is the large external projection which houses the rood loft staircase; evidence suggests that the fabric of the chancel may predate the body of the church. God’s breath will not be allowed to ripple the grassy sepulchral mounds of generations of villagers in this chaste churchyard.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".

This photograph, looking towards The Nook, highlights the frustration of what could have been. The arid area of grass and the 1950s housing (both family and sheltered) could, with a lightness of touch, have provided a more special entrance to the village from the north, under the shadow of St Michael’s Church. Instead, little has happened since 1965, except that the spindly trees on the right have matured and The Huntsman pub (previously The New Inn) has been rebuilt in a bland red brick. In 1615 the vicar complained bitterly that he could not support his family on a wage of under five pounds a year, and now, as a visitor, I felt that it is the very fabric of the village that seems to be echoing his sentiment.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".

The brook here somehow appears to be little cared for, with its chipped concrete posts arrayed along weedy banks. To the right of the photograph is a row of uninteresting 19th/20th-century houses; to the left, and of an earlier era, is a three-story, three-bay brick farmhouse, so common in Leicestershire villages. The overall scene is not enhanced by telephone wires and a rather nasty bus shelter.
An extract from from"Leicestershire Photographic Memories".

The openness of the village is readily apparent in this photograph: it ranges along a brook, criss-crossed by modest Urban District Council railed footbridges. Regrettably, the main 19th-century two-storey buildings fail to enhance the scene to a degree that can be called picturesque.
An extract from from"Leicestershire Photographic Memories".

Cosby presents a most unusual configuration for a Leicestershire village, which with care and attention over the years could have been described as picturesque. The openness of the village centre is striking, with some good later 18th/early 19th-century houses ranging either side of the grass-banked brook, with its modest urban district council railings and fin- ger post. In the background is a substantial brick and timber framed barn dated 1766 - this is the date of the brickwork, the timbering being considerably older. As so often happens in the county, the quality of the village has gone unsung, with the brook, its major natural asset, now being forced between crazy-paved walls instead of gently enhanced - a pity. In Forryan Close a framework knitting shop survives.
An extract from from"Leicester Photographic Memories".