Thorpe Acre


Thorpe Acre is an area of Loughborough, Leicestershire. Until the mid-twentieth century, it was a hamlet of about twenty houses or cottages, several of which survive. There is also a nineteenth-century church and an old hostelry, The Plough Inn. The population is included in the Loughborough-Garendon Ward of Charnwood Council.
Following the Second World War, Loughborough needed more housing and part of Thorpe Acre was developed, largely for employees of Brush Engineering Works, during the 1950s.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Thorpe Acre was chosen for an entirely new estate, which has completely subsumed the old village. Loughborough's two secondary schools, Charnwood College and De Lisle College are located on the edge of the estate.
The area also lies on the boundary of Garendon Park, one of the great Leicestershire deer parks of the eighteenth century.
All Saints Church, Thorpe Acre with Dishley, was built in 1845 and extended in 1985. Dishley Church is now a ruin on the Derby Road, Loughborough. Robert Bakewell, the agriculturalist, is buried there.