shops, including a branch of the Co-Op. New housing continues to be built on the edge of the village, causing periodic controversy. The Bookshop, which opened in the High Street in 2009, won a regional award for Independent Bookseller of The Year in 2012. Transport Arriva Midlands operates Sapphire route X3 between Leicester and Market Harborough and Stagecoach Midlands route X7 between Leicester and Northampton, both via the village. The Midland Main Line runs through the area, but Kibworth railway station, which served both villages, closed in 1968. Sports The local cricket club won the ECB National Club Cricket Championship in 2004. The association football club, previously Kibworth and Smeeton, was renamed in 2018 as Kibworth Town, merging the younger and senior teams together. The village also has clubs for snooker, tennis, golf, bowls and dance. Kibworth is also home to Kibworth Rugby Stars, a children's rugby club serving ages 18 months to 6 years. Kibworth Harcourt Mill The mill, a Grade 2* listed structure, last worked in the 1930s and until 1936 was owned by Merton College, Oxford, then ownership and responsibility was transferred to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB). As of March 2022, restoration costing £350,000 is close to completion. With parts dating from "at least 1711", it is the last surviving post mill in Leicestershire county. Notable residents In birth order: John Aikin (1713–1780), Unitarian preacher, schoolteacher and father of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, lived and taught in Kibworth in 1730–58. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin, 1743–1823), poet, essayist, children's author and daughter of John Aikin, was born in Kibworth Harcourt. John Aikin (1747–1822), physician, biographer and brother of Anna Laetitia Barbauld, was born in Kibworth Harcourt. James Beresford (1764–1840), Anglican cleric and humorist, was rector of Kibworth from 1812 until his death in 1840. Colonel John Worthy Chaplin (1840–1920), awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in 1860 in the Second China War, was buried in Kibworth New Cemetery. Edmund Knox (1847–1937), Anglican bishop, Evangelical writer and father of Ronald Knox, was rector of Kibworth in 1884–1891. Samuel Perkins Pick (1858–1919), architect, was educated at Kibworth Grammar School. T. E. R. Phillips (1868–1942), Anglican cleric and astronomer specializing in planets, was born in Kibworth. Wilfred Knox (1886–1950), Anglican theologian and brother of Ronald Knox, was born in Kibworth. Ronald Knox (1888–1957), Roman Catholic monsignor and religious writer, was born in Kibworth. Sir Nicholas Harold