Leicester City Council Park Services actively seeks to encourage local community involvement in the on-going conservation, development and management of the City’s Parks and Green Spaces. Castle Hill Countrty Park, one of Leicester’s largest parks, is no exception. Local schools, for example, have planted spring flow-ering bulbs and trees, and participate in envi-ronmental fun games and nature walks. Regular park users established a Friends of group for Castle Hill Park in early 2008, while the Castle Hill User Group, set up by Parks Services to keep users informed as to park developments, meets regularly on a quarterly basis. BTCV Leicestershire and Rutland have undertake practical conservation work, in conjunction with Parks Services, the friends of and local commu-nity. Given that part of the Park lies within An-stey Parish, Castle Hill Country Park has also benefited from funding assistance through the County Council’s Stepping Stones Countryside Management Project.

For further information on Castle Hill Country Park please contact:

Park House Abbey Park

Abbey Park Road Leicester LE4 5AQ

Tel: 0116 2221000

For further information on

The Friends of Castle Hill Country Park please contact:

Adrian Barnes on 0116 2108818

Mobile 07944415824

Local Community Involvement in Parks and Green Spaces

Leicester Parks Services

Castle Hill Country Park HeritageTrail

Castle Hill Country Park Established in the 1980s as Leicester’s ‘Urban Fringe Park’, Castle Hill Coun-try Park as it is now known, comprises some 84 ha. of predominantly grass-lands and plantation woodlands. Linear in shape, the Park is cut into two sec-tions by the A46 Leicester Western Bypass, with the Rothley Brook forming the western boundary of the Park. The park contains some fine mature ash, oak and willow trees, located mainly in old hedgerows, alongside the Rothley brook and Bluebell Wood. An ancient wood bank is found at Gorse Hill. The ‘Castle Hill’ earthworks (Astill Lodge Road) and King Williams Bridge (Sheep wash Lane, Anstey) are both scheduled monuments, protected by law.

1. The New Orchard An Orchard is documented for this area in the early 14th Century, when the Knights Hospitaller received an income of 6s-4d from the sale of fruit. It is not known whether or not the orchards survived after the departure of the Hospitallers but the field names ’Orchard’ and ’Further part of the Orchard’

appear on a 1686 map of the historic Beaumont Leys estate. The modern orchard was established in 2005, and now carries 100 plus traditional fruit trees, including such Leicestershire apple varieties as the ’Annie Elizabeth’, ’Barnack Orange’ and ‘Saint Ailred’. 2. Bluebell Wood At just 0.5 ha. in extent, the Bluebell Wood is the only mature broadleaf woodland in the Park. Ash is the dominant tree, with Oak, Field Maple, Elder, Hawthorn and Blackthorn. The Wood’s ground flora is dominated by bluebells and Cow Parsely, with Pink

Campion, Dog’s Mercury, Wood False-Brome, Herb Bennet, Hemp-Nettle, Cuckoo Pint and Hedge Woundwort also present. Typical birds frequenting the wood include; robin, wren, blue tit and great tit.

Bluebell Wood

Castle Hill Orchard

19. The ‘Black Pad’ The Astill Lodge path or ‘Black Pad’ as it is known locally. A key route way through the modern Beaumont Leys estate linking Castle Hill Park with neighbouring residential areas, schools and community facilities. The hedge-row dates back to 1686, if not considerably earlier. 20. Old Bridleway Old bridleway linking Leicester—Beaumont Leys—Anstey via the King William’s Bridge and Sheep Wash Lane. 21. The ‘Great Oak’ The ’Great Oak’, a few hundred years old, is a remnant of former parklands that once graced this area. Beaumont Leys has a long history of forest re-serve and parklands, dating back to the late 12th Century/early 13th Century. By 1530 however, the traveller John Leland makes a reference to ‘Bellemontelease, sumtyme a great park by Leicester but now converted to pasture’. The only surviving parkland Oak. 22. Plantation Woodland Most of the woodland at Castle Hill is modern planted 1985 onwards. Typical species include Ash, Hazel, Field Maple, Oak and Cherry. These woods often mask earlier hedgerows. The City Council’s Trees and Woodlands section re-cently commenced thinning out those peripheral areas of woodland located besides residential areas.

23. The Glades The Glades comprise long curving stretches of grassland separated by linear belts of plantation woodlands. Archaeological field walking in 1982 recovered a fair amount of roman pottery and prehistoric flint implements from this area, sug-gesting that while the ‘Castle Hill’ enclosure is medieval in origin, this locality has been occupied occupied / expoited since the earliest of times.

The Glades

17. Gorse Ancient Wood Bank and Wildflower Meadow Ancient Wood Bank—The (substantial) old earth bank and ditch bordering Gorse Hill is medieval in origin, and formed the boundary of historic Beaumont Leys, its parks and woodlands. This bank and ditch would have prevented live-stock from entering or grazing on the former parklands. Essentially an over-

grown hedgerow, this is one of just five such an-cient hedges remaining in the city. Mature native trees include Oaks, Ash and Field Maple. Typical woodland flowers include Wood Anemone, Bluebells and Dogs Mercury.

The neighbouring Gorse Hill /Anstey Lane has ancient origins, and is annotated ‘the Great Road to Ashby-de-la Zouch’ on the 1686 Beaumont Leys estate plan. This old road, with its wide grass verges, also earlier functioned as an old drove road, moving livestock from upland pasture to Leicester. Wildflower Meadow—A wildflower meadow was created here in 1986 by the former City Wildlife Project. There is a diversity of wildflower including; Agrimony, Yarrow, Knapweed, Rough Hawk-bit and Ox-Eye Daisy. Other plants found include wild carrot, bird’s-foot trefoil, meadow buttercup and self-heal. Together with the neighbouring Gorse Hill Wood Bank this grassland is a Site of Nature Conserva-tion Importance (SINC). Plant nectar at-tracts butterflies such as the Small Tor-toiseshell and Meadow Heath (right). 18. Ancient Ditch A substantial ditch and hedgerow with fine mature trees and fairly diverse ground flora, and of considerable antiquity.

Gorse Hill Wood Bank

Gorse Hill Wildflower Meadow

3. Castle Hill Earthworks The ‘Castle Hill’ earthworks, first recorded in 1891, comprise the banked and ditched enclosure remains of a monastic complex (‘Preceptory’) associated with the Knights Hospitaller. This being a military order of monks established during ‘The Crusades’, and who were present at ‘Castle Hill’ from around 1240—1482. The site functioned as grange or sheep farm / agricul-tural enterprise, the proceeds of which funded the Hospitallers over-seas campaigns.

Contrary to local

tradition there was never a castle here, though the site may have functioned as a hunting lodge at some point—It is known that Beaumont Leys had ‘two fair lodges’ at the time of Henry VIII. 4. Medieval Fishpond Associated with the Preceptory are the earthwork remains of a medieval fishpond. The earthern banks of this old fishpond, now dry, lay below the monastic grange. The pond was supplied with water from an old spring and stream, the main flow of which was diverted around the site in a deep ditch, before flowing on down to the Rothley Brook. Located behind the dam wall, and site of the old sluice gate, this piece of me-dieval engineering, with associated mature trees and rich ground flora, is a valuable nature preserve. The marshy area fronting the dam, and small island, probably represents an old livestock pond, perhaps dug sometime after 1524.

Knights Hospitaller (Rothley Court Hotel)

Preceptory enclosure bank & ditch

Castle Hill Orchard

Site of the meadieval dam wall

5. Hill Ground Nature Reserve The ‘Hill Ground’ features as an enclosure field on the 1696 Beau-mont Leys estate plan. This nar-row strip of land, essentially a field margin/buffer zone, forms a boundary to the park. Hawthorn scrub, with some self-set Ash, Oak and Field Maple, has colo-nised what was once grassland displaying a diversity of wild flow-ers and grasses including; Cen-taury, Glaucous Sedge, various Vetches, Clovers and, on the damper parts, Willow Herb. Wild flowers on the scrub margins, and growing along a narrow path leading through the ‘reserve’, provide nectar for a variety of butterflies including the Speckled Wood. Elsewhere on Castle Park, with the exception of the Gorse Hill meadow, and a few pockets of land located besides the Rothley Brook, the grasslands are species poor. This is largely due to high soil fertility arising out of former land use i.e. Beaumont Leys Sewage Irrigation Farm—City Farms enterprise.

6. Ancient Paths and Bridleways A series of old paths and trails run in a northerly direction from Leicester, linking up with villages in the Rothley Valley (Anstey, Cropston & Thurcaston), and onto the Charnwood Uplands. Over the years these would have been used for travel, hunting, moving livestock, quarried building materials, wool and other goods. These tracks, some of which have bridleway status, crossed the Rothley Brook via a series of fords or narrow stone packhorse bridges. 7. Thurcaston ‘Gate’ This may have been on old gate or way connecting the former Thurcaston Woodlands and Beaumont Leys. The hedgerow following the Anstey Lane up to Thurcaston village bordered ‘Park Field’, one of the great open fields belong-ing to Thurcaston, and which was enclosed 1798. The road itself, and the brick bridge crossing the Rothley Brook nearby date to the 1760s.

Wild flowers at the ‘Hill Ground’

Another old sheep wash is known to have existed besides the Anstey mill, lo-cated just upstream of the Anstey Packhorse bridge (Leicester Road). 13. Historic Parish Boundary An ancient hedge and (now) shallow ditch, with a diversity of plants and some mature Ash trees demarcates the old (and indeed present day) parish bound-ary. It is not uncommon to see large granite boulders placed along this bound-ary elsewhere in the Park. 14. Plumpford Historic maps and documents show an old ford, the ‘plumford’ or ‘Plumpford’, located a little dis-tance upstream of the King Wil-liam’s Bridge, near to where the Cropston Road garage now stands. It was destroyed in the 1960s. Over the Cropston Road, almost directly opposite the site of the old ford, an old track—‘The Slang’ - leads north to Bradgate Park and the ruined mansion. The Anstey Enclosure map indicates that a livestock pond was also located in this vicinity; while place-name evidenced (recorded by Anstey Women’s Insti-tute) recorded a field called ‘eel pool’- presumably part of the nearby brook.

15. Rothley Valley (South) The early foundation of Anstey is closely associated with Leicester Abbey, one of the wealthiest Augustinian Houses in the country, and whose lands ex-tended to the Rothley Valley. The ‘Abbey meadows’ were tenanted out and would have formed part of Anstey’s medieval Mill Field. This particular area would have been an ‘assart’ i.e. agricultural lands claimed from former wood-lands. 16. Blue Gates The presence of large deep ditches either side of the track leading through from Gorse Hill to Beaumont Leys is possibly an old gate or entry point to the historic Beaumont Leys Woodland / Park. One of the Domesday woodlands

King William’s Bridge Area 1884

12. King William’s Bridge and Sheep Wash An old granite rubble pack horse bridge possibly dating back to around 1500, with single cutwater facing flow. The name appears relatively modern, having been named after King William III whose entourage passed this way in 1696 on way to visit Lord Grey, Earl of Stam-ford at his Bradgate residence. The bridge was probably widened then, but these works may have taken place in the latter part of18thc in association with the Anstey Parish Enclosures. The bridge was restored early 2008. Other old stone bridges span the Rothley Brook nearby at Anstey and Thurcaston.

The ‘Dam Gate’ or Sheep Wash Lands either side of the Rothley Brook were grazed extensively by sheep from medieval times into modern period. When Beaumont leys was disparked, in the early 16th Century, the area was divided into two large ‘walks’ or sheep ranges i.e. ‘Bonneys’ and ‘Temple’ Walk. Later still, the Astill and Burgess’s families were notable grazers in this locality. Sheep were also an important part of the former City Farms enterprise, linked to the Beaumont Leys Farm

and Irrigation scheme (1885-1964).

A Sheep Wash, formerly located besides King William’s Bridge, was still in use in living memory. Little remains of this structure except for an old brick built, stone based tunnel which passes beneath the bridleway, and immediately east of the bridge. Of similar construction to the extended section of King William’s Bridge, this tunnel pre-

sumably represents the former sheep dip. Water management would have been achieved through use of a dam or sluice. The neighbouring field, on the Leicester side, was historically known as the ‘Dambridge’.

Bridge detail showing brick extension

King William’s Bridge, Sheep Wash Lane

8. Nothill Scenic View Point ‘Nothill’ is the name of one of Anstey’s former open fields, the Parish having been enclosed in 1762. The hill provides views out over the Rothley Valley to-wards Charnwood. A (newly created) woodland / grassland ride links Nothill to the main ‘Nothill track’ and King William’s Bridge. 9. Rothley Brook Meadow (North) Low lying flood prone meadow land often temporary leased out for horse grazing purposes. In the past this field has been considered suitable for wetland habitat creation—A scheme for such being drawn up by the City Wildlife Project in 1986. This land was historically part of the Rec-tory of Thurcaston. 10. The Rothley Brook Historically known as the ‘Great Brook’ or ‘Heathe Brook’ this clear fast flowing stream forms the southern boundary to Charnwood Forest. The City Wildlife Pro-ject identified over 40 bird species in the Castle Hill section of the brook, including Kingfisher, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Little Owl and Tawny Owl. There have, in the past, also been sightings of Water Vole and Otter. Large mature Willow trees occur besides the brook. The Rothley Brook (above) is a designated Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). 11. Storm Retention Areas One of three storm water retention areas constructed along the length of the Park, each of which is associated with a (former) monitoring station. Rarely (if ever) full, local water-logging has given rise to the occasional patch of sedge. Aside from modern infrastructure, such as pylons and Leicester A46 Western bypass, the Park has a legacy of Victorian industrial archaeology. This being associated with the former Beaumont Leys Sewage Works—The operations of which no doubt damaged earlier archaeological features at ‘Castle Hill’.

An aerial view of Castle Hill Park and environs (2005)