Parks, walks and recreation

April 2022   Groby is lucky to be located at the southern boundary of the Charnwood Forest area, with access to open fields and woodland on our doorstep. Martinshaw Wood, Sheet Hedges Wood and Groby Pool SSSI are within easy walking distance, with Bradgate Park, Beacon Hill and more a little further afield. The area around Ulverscroft Priory also provides delightful walking opportunities and is home to a hidden gem nearby – Lea Meadows, managed by the Leicestershire Wildlife Trust.

There are no facilities or car park, and after periods of heavy rain part of the meadow may be flooded. There may be cattle or even a bull present. So it’s not the place for a barbeque or a family game of soccer, and deviating from the footpaths may result in a lot of shoe cleaning before travelling home, in addition to causing damage in a very sensitive area.

But for the keen ecologist or environmentalist these considerations will be unimportant compared to the possible rewards - Lea Meadows can be traced back over seven centuries and appears to be part of a medieval assart, Lea Wood being the other part. An assart is an area of cleared woodland.

 Ridge and furrow underlies some areas, parts which have been ploughed, probably in the 13th or 14th century when grassland had to be sacrificed to meet the immediate demands of a rapidly growing population. To protect the area from grazing animals like wild deer, a substantial bank and ditch was built around the assart and remnants of this can be seen just after entering the meadows from the east.

There are conifer woods all around. and a line of alder trees follows the unpolluted winding stream on the opposite side of the meadow, providing the perfect haven for the brook lamprey. Other fish, like bullhead, minnow, three-spined stickleback and brown trout, have also been recorded, along with white-clawed crayfish. Kingfishers are occasionally seen along the stream and the alders alongside are excellent for wintering flocks of siskin and redpoll.

The best time to visit is late spring, when the reserve is at its most beautiful. Then, in early summer pignut attracts chimney sweeper moths, while later in the summer the carpets turn the purple and blue of betony, harebell and devil's-bit scabious, among numerous species of grasses, sedges and rush. In wetter areas, many hundreds of common and heath spotted-orchids flower, with marsh speedwell and opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage. In drier parts bitter-vetch, great burnet, pepper-saxifrage and a few plants of saw-wort can be seen.

“It’s a lovely area of unimproved neutral/slightly acid grassland and part of the SSSI which covers the Ulverscroft Brook catchment,” explained a local expert. “The meadow flowers are remarkable with over 250 species in 12 hectares and, with all this un-spoilt primary production, these is a wonderful invertebrate population and bird life.”

Visiting

Travelling from Newtown Linford, pedestrian access is on on the left hand side of Ulverscroft Lane, 1Km from Sharpley Hill. From Markfield it’s on the right 400 metres past Polly Botts Lane.

When visiting remember to -

Stay on waymarked paths

Put rubbish in bins or take it home with you

Don't start fires or barbeques

Be careful of nesting wildlife

Google Lea Meadows you tube to watch a 7 minute video tour made during the 2020 lockdown. This article is based on information from the Leicestershire Wildlife Trust.

Make a visit to Sheet Hedges a New Year Resolution

January 2022   It’s nearly 2 years since the arrival of Covid 19 and the lockdown that led to many more residents exploring the countryside around Groby.  Although woodland walks increased in popularity it’s probably true to say that Sheet Hedges Wood, off Newtown Linford Lane, is still visited less than other nearby sites.  

The wood, managed by Leicestershire County Council,  was opened to the public in 1998 with National Forest grant aid together with funding from the County Council and Forestry Authority.  Access is along a network of footpaths, and part of the woodland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  New broadleaf planting has replaced the conifers that once stood there, and Sheet Hedges now has one of the best examples of ash and alder woods in Leicestershire.  There’s a rich mix of native trees including oak, ash, wild cherry and hazel, and in spring the woodland floor is carpeted in the colourful flowers of bluebell, wood anemone, yellow archangel and red campion.

Two areas of woodland were separated by a field  which has been planted with over 5000 trees to link them.  In addition  an area has been seeded with a mix of locally indigenous species of grasses and wild flowers, with the meadow being cut for hay annually in late summer.

The SSSI area of the site (the established woodland) was last assessed by Natural England in 2013/14. Most was given a condition status of unfavourable but recovering, but the north-east unit was described as declining to cover by non-native trees and shrubs. 

One of the key issues affecting the condition of Sheet Hedges Wood SSSI is the frequency of invasive non-native trees, which in this case is primarily sycamore. Measures have been implemented to reduce the frequency of seed bearing sycamores, which is why some of the units were assessed as ‘Unfavourable – Recovering’. Ideally, Natural England would like to encourage more sycamore to be removed but the high frequency of ash complicates the issue due to ash die-back disease, which is now also negatively influencing SSSI condition. 

As the latest condition assessments at Sheet Hedges Wood SSSI were carried out in 2014, it likely wouldn’t be targeted for a full assessment again for a few years.  “For most sites we’d do this at least once every 6 years,” said a spokesperson for Natural England, “though for sites where changes are expected to be slow, such as woodland, we may do a condition assessment once every 10 years.”  

Last year there were reports of excavations and the creation of unauthorised mountain bike tracks in the woods, so Natural England will liaise with the County Council and may visit and agree whether any remediation is appropriate.   “ The impacts of mountain bikes may not automatically affect condition as it may be small scale or recoverable,” the spokesperson added. “The important thing to bear in mind here is, just because an activity may be illegal and damaging, it does not necessarily turn an SSSI into unfavourable condition.”

Although a small car park was provided at the woods, it has been closed for many years.  The nearest parking is at Groby Pool, a few minutes walk away.

More information 

Go to https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteSearch.aspx, where you can search for Sheet Hedges Wood.  You’ll find links to Natural England’s site specific views about management, a citation explaining Natural England’s reasons for designating the SSSI, and  operations requiring Natural England's consent.

Wildlife Highlights

For botanists, or anyone else who likes to talk technical, the following text is taken from the Natural England website as the citation for it being designated a SSSI.

“The wood, which is basically of the ash-maple type, has developed on soils derived from strata of the underlying Glacial Boulder Clay and Triassic Keuper Marl. The woodland canopy is characterised by the abundance of ash Fraxinus excelsior together with smaller numbers of pedunculate oak Quercus robur, while the basic constituents of the shrub layer are hazel Corylus avellana, field maple Acer campestre, hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, elder Sambucus nigra, and privet Ligustrum vulgare, with rose Rosa spp. also common. 

“The ground vegetation contains abundant tufted hair-grass Deschampsia caespitosa, rough meadow grass Poa trivialis, dog's mercury Mercurialis perennis, red campion Silene dioica and enchanter's nightshade Circaea lutetiana, together with a range of plants typical of ancient woodland, including yellow archangel Galeobdolon luteum, wood anemone Anemone nemerosa, wood millet Milium effusum, wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella, sanicle Sanicula europaea, ransoms Allium ursinum, toothwort Lathraea squamaria and giant bellflower Campanula latifolia. 

“In the northern part of the wood sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus has invaded and modified the stand type, while in he south alder Alnus glutinosa dominates an area of woodland developed on wetter soils. 

“Within the alder wood the shrub layer is characterised by the presence of dogwood Swida sanguinea, Hazel Corylus avellana and guelder rose Viburnum opulus, while the ground vegetation contains abundant Mercurialis perennis and lesser celandine Ranunculus ficaria, and frequent bugle Ajuga reptans, marsh marigold Caltha palustris, cleavers Galium aparine and wood avens Geum urbanum. 

“The centre of the wood is largely bare of trees and is dominated by bracken Pteridium aquilinum.”