45. BRADGATE PARK

Leicester, Leicestershire

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Bradgate Park is a lovely public park in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, England, northwest of Leicester. Bradgate Park lies between the villages of Newtown Linford, Anstey, Cropston, Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland. The River Lin runs through the park and flows into Cropston Reservoir. To the north-east lies Swithland Wood which you can walk to from Bradgate Park. Bradgate Park has two well known landmarks, the Old John tower and the war memorial. Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to their biological and geological features.
 

The land of, and around, Bradgate Park was from medieval times once part of the Manor of Groby and in the reign of Edward the Confessor, the area was owned by a landowner named Ulf. The manor, and much other land in Leicestershire, was given to Hugh de Grandmesnil in the eleventh century as reward for his assistance in battle to William I.

The name Bradgate is thought to derive from Norse or Anglo-Saxon, meaning "broad road" or "broad gate" respectively. The first mention of Bradgate Park is from 1241, described as a hunting park and then acquired by the Beaumont family, who passed it to the de Quincy family and then William de Ferrers of Groby where it remained in the de Ferrers family until 1445, when it passed to the Grey family after William's only surviving daughter married Edward Grey. The Grey family retained the Bradgate Park estate for 500 years, and even in the 19th century Bradgate Park was opened to the public several days a week. In 1928 it was bought by Charles Bennion who asserted that Bradgate Park 'should be preserved in its natural state for the quiet enjoyment of the people of Leicestershire'.

The original medieval deer park, later enlarged in the 16th century, was enclosed with a bank and ditch topped by vertical pales of oak. These first ditchworks cross the River Lyn east of the Little Matlock Gorge. A parker, living in a moated house, was the only occupant, maintaining stocks of deer for the lord of Groby Manor to hunt and to this day Bradgate Park has herds of red and fallow deer, probably with an unbroken occupancy since medieval times.


Bradgate House in Bradgate Park, dates from the 16th century by way of Edward Grey's son Sir John Grey of Groby married Elizabeth Woodville, who after John's death married King Edward IV. Their son Thomas Grey, hoped to build Bradgate House in the late fifteenth century but died beforehand. His son Thomas Grey eventually, by 1520, had built Bradgate House.

Sir Thomas Grey died in 1530 and succeeded by his son Henry who was married to Frances, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, King Henry VIII's younger sister. Their daughter Lady Jane Grey was born at Bradgate House in 1537. At the age of fifteen in 1553, the Duke of Northumberland proclaimed her Queen of England and Ireland, opposing the succession of Mary Tudor. Unfortunately, Mary Tudor had more support, and after the Lord Mayor of London proclaimed Mary queen the Duke of Northumberland lost all support, and he, his son, and Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Days Queen, were beheaded for treason !n 1554,

A prominent landmark is the folly known as 'Old John' on the top of the highest hill in the park. Built by the Greys in 1784, the folly is said that the walling of the tower was altered to look like a beer tankard handle mirroring John's liking of ale. The Old John tower was used during the 19th century as a viewing point for the horse-racing practice circuit laid out by the seventh earl.

In 2001, Bradgate Park Trust registered the design of the building as a trademark, and in 2018 told a local artist that she would have to pay them if she continued to sell her paintings of it.

Cropston Reservoir was constructed in 1871 as Leicester's second reservoir (after Thornton), and was built in response to the 1831 and 1841 cholera epidemics.


Bradgate Park is now a public park administered by the Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood Charitable Trust, with trustees nominated by Leicestershire County Council, Leicester City Council and the National Trust. With the consent of the Charity Commission, the charity has adopted the shorter working title of Bradgate Park Trust.

Bradgate Park has a considerably interesting geology ranging from some of the oldest Precambrian fossil bearing rocks to the youngest Quaternary rocks in England. The rocky outcrops you see in Bradgate Park were created in conditions varying from volcanic action from under the ocean, to magma flowing deep underground and from tropical deserts to ice sheets as plate tectonics has shifted the Earth's crust around. Triassic were roamed 350 million years ago and have become exposed due to the erosion of the rocks above. From the Mercia Mudstone Group. this the clay was used to make the bricks for Bradgate House


There is a great richness of flora and fauna in Bradgate Park e.g. fallow deer and red squirrels, pockets of woodland of pine and mixed deciduous trees are enclosed by stone walls and are not open to the public. There are magnificent ancient oaks and a great variety of birdlife including wildfowl on the reservoir. You find large colonies of rooks and other species include yellowhammer, reed bunting, skylark and meadow pipit.

Dogs are allowed but in some areas they must be kept on a lead.

There is a café and information centres in Bradgate Park. The visitor centre occupies the Deer Barn buildings and the geology section features details of the park's formation over millions of years. The Deer Barns café in the centre of the park, open 7 days a week offering sandwiches, toasties, jacket potatoes and other cold snacks and hot and cold drinks. There is also a café at the Newtown Linford car park.

 

Wonderful trees to view walking in Bradgate Park

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Nice little rocky outcrops for children to play on safely in Bradgate Park

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The ruins the Tudor Period Bradgate House, home of the ill-fated executed Lady Jane Grey

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The chapel of Bradgate House in Bradgate Park.

The main cafe near the Cropston reservoir in Bradgate Park

The expanse of Cropston Reservoir in Bradgate Park.

Information board on getting to know the woodlands trees of Bradgate Park.

Old John's Folly in the distance.

Folly of 'Old John' on top of the highest hill, built by the Greys in 1784 in Bradgate Park,  altered to look like a beer tankard handle mirroring John's liking of ale

The War Memorial in Bradgate Park.

The main car park serving Bradgate Park.

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