Bradgate Park

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.

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.

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.

Bradgate Electoral Division is a County Council electoral division in Leicestershire, England, taking its name from Bradgate Park which is at the centre of the division. It includes the villages of Anstey, Cropston, Thurcaston, Newtown Linford, Ulverscroft, Swithland, Woodhouse and Woodhouse Eaves, and is currently represented by Deborah Taylor.

Roecliffe Manor Lawns is a 1.3 hectares (3.2 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire.This grassland site on Precambrian rocks has a wide variety of fungi, including several species listed in the provisional Red Data Book of threatened species for fungi. There are many mushrooms of the genus Entoloma'.The site is private land with no public access.

Newtown Linford is a linear village in Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish was 1,000 at the 2001 census, including Ulverscroft, increasing to 1,103 at the 2011 census.The village lies in a valley in the Charnwood Forest area, and has four access roads. The first is from Anstey, then there are roads which lead to the A50 at Groby and at Markfield (the former passing Groby Pool). Another road that leads north towards Ulverscroft, or Loughborough, Woodhouse, Woodhouse Eaves, Swithland etc.

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.

Charnwood is a constituency in Leicestershire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Edward Argar, a Conservative.Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the seat will be abolished, with the majority being included in the new constituency of Mid Leicestershire, to be first contested at the next general election. Syston, East Goscote and Thurmaston will be included in the newly created constituency of Melton and Syston.

Swithland Wood and The Brand is a 87.9 hectares (217 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire. Swithland Wood is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade II. The Brand is designated a Precambrian site in the Geological Conservation Review, but the dating has been changed due to the discovery of trace fossils from the succeeding Cambrian period. Swithland Wood is a public woodland in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire. Although close to the village of Swithland, it is almost entirely within the parish of Newtown Linford, just north of Bradgate Park and also near Woodhouse Eaves and Cropston. The wood is Leicestershire's most important ancient woodland for nature conservation. Quarries within the wood were a source of the distinctive Swithland Slate roofs found on many local buildings as well as the slate gravestones common in Leicestershire churchyards. Swithland Wood has been a public woodland since 1925, upon its acquisition by the Leicester Rotary Club, having previously been part of the estate of the manor of Groby. Since 1931 it has been managed by the Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood Trust.

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.

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.

Cropston Reservoir (originally known as Bradgate Reservoir) lies in Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, England. The dam and associated water works are in Cropston, while the bulk of the reservoir is in the neighbouring Newtown Linford parish. It was opened in May 1871 in a corner of Bradgate Park, a large expanse of open land northwest of Leicester. It is part of the 987-acre (399.3 ha) Bradgate Park and Cropston Reservoir Site of Special Scientific Interest.London-based consulting engineer Thomas Hawksley was appointed by Leicester Water Works in 1865 to carry out the surveying work. In September 1867, 180 acres (73 ha) of land adjacent to the deer park at Bradgate Park was purchased from the Earl of Stamford for a cost of £24,000. A stone wall was built by George Rudkin around the boundary to separate the deer park from the reservoir, at a cost of 8s 10d per yard. The dam is 760 yards (690 m) long and rises to a height of 51 feet (16 m) at its highest point, which gives a depth of water of 38 feet (12 m). The cost of the dam was £41,356 and the reservoir £8,500 with the contract being awarded to Benton & Woodiwiss of Derby. The reservoir was completed in 1870. The dam was originally constructed from a mixture of siliceous sand and clay, but as water was found to be leaking through it, it was rebuilt and now extends 40 feet (12 m) below the surface. Water from the reservoir was piped to four large filter beds. It was then pumped to an elevation matching the supply from Thornton Reservoir so that the supplies from the two reservoirs could be merged.The reservoir is formed by the River Lin and is owned and managed by Severn Trent. The growing population of Leicester and surrounding areas meant that by the late 19th century the reservoirs in Leicestershire were no longer adequate to meet demand, and water is now piped from Ladybower Reservoir to Cropston.