The service this year will take place at 3pm on Sunday 16 August. The Benefice of Markfield, Stanton under Bardon, Thornton, Bagworth and Copt Oak set up and prepare with the support of Emma and Trevor Wells who go to great lengths to ensure that we can park safely and that the grounds are beautifully prepared for our visit. Indeed, not too long ago, two of their three children were baptised at this very service!
Following the service light refreshments are served and visitors are able to mingle and chat and appreciate the unique surroundings where Creation and 40 shades of green are well reflected. Amazingly, in all the 40+ years that we have been involved, there was only one Sunday when it rained! A warm invitation is extended to all in the surrounding villages, most of whom are now involved in the developing Minster Community. Rev. Matt Gough, vicar of Anstey and Thurcaston, will be our preacher this year.
And when you come please bring a chair! We look forward to welcoming you. If you wish to know more we are happy to help.
Pat Barnes, Vice Chair Copt Oak PCC
The Lost Tunnels of Ulverscroft Priory?
April 2026 Recently we heard a lot about a network of underground tunnels in Gaza, but they were not as infamous as the tunnels of Saigon, one of the horrors of the Vietnam war over 50 years ago.
Located northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), The Cu Chi Tunnels are a 155-mile network of underground passageways. Originally dug during the resistance against French colonial rule in the 1940s, they were significantly expanded by the Viet Cong to serve as an "underground city" for survival and guerrilla operations which allowed soldiers to launch surprise attacks and disappear before American forces could react. Armed with just a torch and a gun U.S. and some Australian soldiers were specialists who entered the dark, booby-trapped tunnels.
Nottingham is also famous for it’s tunnels and caves, but closer to home have you heard of the Lost Tunnels of Ulverscroft Priory? If you have please share your knowledge, as the only mention of them appears to be in a mysterious letter written in 1989.
Thirty seven years ago a Leicester resident sat down and wrote a letter to “The tenant at Bradgate House near Newtown Linford”. He explained that he had been born in Ulvercroft Priory in 1911 where there was a tunnel, created by soldiers in the time of Oliver Cromwell, from the Priory to Blake Hays Farm, Old John and ‘Bradgate House’.
Did Cromwell’s army come to Leicestershire?
There was military activity in Leicestershire during the English Civil War, when the County was bitterly divided in the conflict between King and Parliament, and the two most prominent families chose opposing sides. Lord Grey of Groby, was one of Leicester’s two elected MPs during the Civil War period and was appointed commander-in-chief of Parliament’s forces in the Midlands. But the powerful Hastings family came down firmly on the Royalist side. They owned land across the whole county including Ashby de la Zouch Castle.
“Any conflict in this area would have been between Henry Hastings and Lord Grey”, said Matthew Morris. “As far as I'm aware, Ulverscroft has no connections with the Civil War and Cromwell had very little involvement in Leicestershire. Ulverscroft Priory was pretty small, never having more than 10 canons at any one time, and it was long gone before the Civil War.”
Matthew’s name may be familiar. In 2012, he directed the successful archaeological search for the lost grave of King Richard III. More recently he has been digging up more Roman buildings and mosaics in Leicester, at the former Southgates Bus Depot and All Saints' Brewery sites, and leading the archaeological work for the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project.
The rise and fall of the Priory
Ulverscroft Priory was founded by Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, in 1139. In 1535 it was scheduled to be dissolved with the other smaller priories, but was allowed to continue functioning upon payment of a fine. It was finally dissolved in September 1539.
As you enter the porch of St Peter’s Church at Thornton you will see an impressive 14th Century 6′ x 9′ wooden door that is believed to have come from Ulverscroft Priory. The ruins of the Priory church and tower are on private land and are not open to the public. Historic England describes the extensive ruined buildings, and a long water-filled moat and three large fishponds, as the finest surviving monastic site in Leicestershire.
Priest holes and tunnels
Priest holes were secret hiding places built into English manor houses during the 16th and 17th centuries. They were generally designed as hides rather than gateways to long tunnels.
While popular legend often speaks of long underground tunnels connecting manors to local churches, actual historical tunnels were rare and usually short. “Its amazing how many places seem to have 'secret tunnels' linked with the Civil War,” explained Matthew. “Often, these stories of tunnels are vague memories of the discoveries of stone culverts and drains.”
So were there tunnels at Ulverscroft?
The letter mentions a door in the floor. Matthew suggests that a trapdoor in the floor leading to a tunnel in a priory setting could easily be the remains of the priory's reardorter (lavatory) which would be built over a stream or culvert so it could be flushed. Even if there was a door that accessed an underground room offering a safe hiding place during uncertain times, a tunnel to the Bradgate Park area would have been around 2 miles long, and would no doubt have faced major engineering challenges.
"This is not imagination,,,none of this is lies," says the letter writer. He believed what he wrote, but there are other factual errors in the letter, and nothing to suggest that this is not another of those stories that, despite being passed from generation to generation over nearly 500 hundred years, is more fiction than fact.
