Welbourn is one of a line of villages spaced along the foot of the relatively well wooded escarpment of the Lincolnshire Edge. Most of the buildings in the village are informally aligned along narrow curving lanes, flanked by hedges or stone walls and complemented by a variety of mature trees with the bulbous spire of St Chad's Church providing a conspicuous landmark set against the attractive background of the slope of the Cliff. A significant proportion of the houses are built in the traditional local materials, coursed rubble limestone and red clay pantiles, which give a consistent sense of unity and character. Most of the village is a conservation area.
The northern part of the village includes The Nookin and North End; here there is an attractive, informal grouping of a variety of stone buildings surrounded by mature trees and dominated by St. Chad's Church. This area also contains a beehive well - one of the few examples of this type of traditional water supply point (see photo on detail page).
The central section of the village is the main commercial and communal focus which includes the village shop/post office, a public house, the primary school, the village hall and playing field grouped near the junctions of High Street, Little Lane and Beck Street. The majority of buildings here are built in traditional materials and form a pleasing, enclosed village scape.
Castle Hill field with the Bell Tree Green and The Beck (pond) provide an attractive and sharply contrasting landscape element within this essentially built up environment.
Two farms and an engineering works lie within the village, causing farm machinery and HGVs to travel through parts of the village.
To the south, The Green forms a fine focal point around which there is an attractive informal grouping of stone and pantiled buildings, with several houses of real historical and architectural interest, including the birthplace of Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, the Welbourn Co-operative store, the first rural co-operative established in Lincolnshire, the Manor House and the former blacksmith's forge.
Castle Hill (3.45 acres) is located in the centre of the Welbourn Conservation Area near The Beck, the Village Hall, the Playing Field, the Primary School and close to St. Chad's Church. The whole site is a scheduled Ancient Monument (being the remains of an Anglo-Norman castle) and is designated in the District Council's local plan as a visual amenity area. On the north western boundary of the village are the remains of a Roman encampment, thought to have been a marching camp. The central area of Castle Hill was used as low grade grazing land but the former motte and bailey castle is marked by extensive earthworks, surrounded by a stream and marshland which follow the course of the former moat. Historically the castle and a later fortified mansion are of more than local significance. For example, a former owner was Sir John Popham(1537- 1607), Lord Chief Justice of England(1592- 1607) who presided over such famous trials as that of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Gunpowder Conspirators. He was also active in promoting the first English settlements in North America.
Surrounded by arable land and with woods and some ponds nearby, the village is home to a wide range of birds, including 3 varieties of tit, many songbirds, some water birds, several finches (upon which sparrowhawks prey), a few herons, owls and even some more exotic species like woodpeckers, pheasants and nut hatches. Buzzards can also be seen soaring above the Edge in summer.