Newtown Linford

Sheet Hedges Wood is in the parish of Newtown Linford, and lies some 1-mile (1.6 km) north of Groby, in Leicestershire, UK. The site is made up of two areas of woodland and a meadow field, all with public access, extending 29 acres (120,000 m2). The woodland block is adjacent to the road includes a car park and access trails. The larger eastern woodland is a 21.7 hectares (54 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is typical of ancient woods on clay soils in central and eastern England, and ash is dominant in the canopy, while the shrub layer has hazel, field maple, hawthorn, elder and privet.Between the two woodland blocks, the fields have had some broadleaved tree planting, and encouragement of natural regeneration. An area of meadow is also managed as a wildflower hay meadow.The wood and meadow are managed by Leicestershire County Council. Less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south is Groby Pool, an area of natural open water, with its own car park. 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) north, accessed via a footpath or Groby Lane, is Bradgate Park, a large deer park and open public space.

Bradgate House is a 19th-century ruin in Groby, Leicestershire, England. Built in 1856 for the seventh Earl of Stamford, George Harry Grey, it was intended as a replacement for the 16th century Bradgate House built circa 1520, built by his ancestor Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset and home of Lady Jane Grey. The house was constructed in a Jacobean style on a site 2 miles south-west of Bradgate Park. The large, handsome mansion was referred to as "Calendar House", supposedly having 365 windows, 52 rooms and 12 main chimneys. The Earl of Stamford was known for his extravagance. The stable block alone, built when the Earl became master of the Quorn Hunt, cost £30,000, a massive sum for those days. The house was sold for demolition in 1925 and subsequently demolished, leaving only the quadrangular stable block (52.6789°N 1.2511°W / 52.6789; -1.2511 (Bradgate House stables)), a grandiose building even in its current dilapidated state.

Bradgate Park () is a public park in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, England, northwest of Leicester. It covers 850 acres (340 hectares). The park lies between the villages of Newtown Linford, Anstey, Cropston, Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland. The River Lin runs through the park, flowing into Cropston Reservoir which was constructed on part of the park. To the north-east lies Swithland Wood. The park's two well known landmarks, Old John and the war memorial, both lie just above the 210 m (690 ft) contour. The park is part of the 399.3 hectare Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest, which has been designated under both biological and geological criteria.Following a fire in April 2017, the owners Bradgate Trust advised that all visitors are expected to be alert to the risk of causing fire, though another fire in June destroyed one of the ancient oaks.

Old John is the highest hill in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, England, on the southern edge of Charnwood Forest. It gives its name to the folly that stands at its top. The hill stands at 212 metres (696 ft) high, and is a prominent landmark across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Groby Pool and Woods is a 29 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Groby in Leicestershire.Groby Pool is the largest natural lake in the county, and it is used by many wintering wildfowl. The marginal vegetation is diverse, and there is also wet woodland and meadows which have grasses such as common bent, sweet vernal grass and crested dog's-tail.There are footpaths through the site.

Charnwood Forest is a hilly tract in north-western Leicestershire, England, bounded by Leicester, Loughborough and Coalville. The area is undulating, rocky and picturesque, with barren areas. It also has some extensive tracts of woodland; its elevation is generally 600 feet (180 m) and upwards, the area exceeding this height being about 6,100 acres (25 km2). The highest point, Bardon Hill, is 912 feet (278 m). On its western flank lies an abandoned coalfield, with Coalville and other former mining villages, now being regenerated and replanted as part of the National Forest. The M1 motorway, between junctions 22 and 23, cuts through Charnwood Forest. The hard stone of Charnwood Forest has been quarried for centuries, and was a source of whetstones and quern-stones. The granite quarries at Bardon Hill, Buddon Hill and Whitwick supply crushed aggregate to a wide area of southern Britain. The forest is an important recreational area with woodland walks, noted for their displays of bluebells in the early spring, rock climbing and hillwalking. Popular places with public access include Bardon Hill, Beacon Hill, Bradgate Park, Swithland Wood and the Outwoods and Stoneywell Cottage (National Trust).

Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir is a 399.7-hectare (988-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north–west of Leicester. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, and Bradgate Park contains Geological Conservation Review sites and a Scheduled Monument.Bradgate Park has one of the best examples of ancient parkland in the county, and Cropston Reservoir has unusual plants on its shores. The park has Charnian rocks dating to the Ediacaran period around 600 million years ago, and it has provided the type section for four different members of the stratigraphic sequence. It is described by Natural England as "a site of great importance to the study of Precambrian palaeontology".There are footpaths through the park and around the reservoir.

Lea Meadows is a 12-hectare (30-acre) nature reserve east of Markfield in Leicestershire. It is owned and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Ulverscroft Valley, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and part of it is a scheduled monument.Over 240 species of plants have been recorded on these unimproved marshy meadows, and there is a stream which has white-clawed crayfish and brook lampreys, both of which are legally protected. Part of the site is surrounded by a medieval moat.There is access from Ulverscroft Lane.

Benscliffe Wood is a 9.8 hectares (24 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Leicestershire.This wood has one of the richest varieties of lichens in the East Midlands, with over thirty species growing on Precambrian rocks. Eleven of the species are rare in the county.The site is private land with no public access.

Groby Castle is situated in the large village of Groby to the north-west of the city of Leicester, England.

Groby Old Hall is partly a 15th-century brick-built manor house and grade II* listed building located very near the site of Groby Castle in the village of Groby in Leicestershire.

Bradgate House is a 16th-century ruin in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire, England. 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, 1st Marquess of Dorset made preparations for building the first Bradgate House in the late 15th century but died before work began. It was his son, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset who built the first Bradgate House, completing it circa 1520. This is one of the first unfortified great houses in England and one of the earliest post-Roman use of bricks. It was lived in by the Grey family for the next 220 years. It is believed that the house was the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, later Queen, ruling for a mere 9 days before being overthrown by Mary I. After Jane and her father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, were executed in 1554, the estate passed to the crown. Local history claims that groundskeepers marked the occasion of Jane's execution by pollarding the estate's oak trees in a symbolic beheading. Examples of pollarded oaks can still be seen in the park. In 1563 the family regained favour, and the Groby manor, including Bradgate, was restored to Jane's Uncle, Lord John Grey of Pirgo. His great-grandson was made Earl of Stamford. Later earls acquired estates in Enville, Staffordshire, and Dunham Massey, Cheshire. Sometime after 1739 they moved out of Bradgate, which began a long decline. The spectacular ruins of the house are still visible at the centre of the park. The house was approximately 200 feet (61 m) long, featuring a main hall measuring 80 by 30 feet (24.4 m × 9.1 m). As well as considerable remains of walls and fireplaces, it has four truncated towers and the chapel is still intact, containing a tomb effigy to Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford and his wife.In the mid-19th century, George Harry Grey and the 7th Earl of Stamford and Warrington commissioned a new house to be built designed by the architect Mr M.J. Dain of Dain and Parsons, London, and built by the local builder Mr Thomas Rudkin. The new Bradgate House was completed in 1856 near the village of Groby, Leicestershire and built in the Jacobean style it has been referred to as the Calendar House because it had 365 windows, 52 rooms, and 12 main chimneys. The new house was sadly demolished in the mid-1920s when Leicestershire estates were sold by late Earl's niece Katherine Henrietta Venezia Grey, who incidentally changed her surname to Grey on the condition of her inheritance of the estates from her deceased uncle. The new Bradgate House near the village of Groby is frequently confused with the 16th-century ruined house of the same name in Bradgate Park 2 miles in distance.