Leighfield | |
---|---|
Location within Rutland | |
Area | 3.68 sq mi (9.5 km2) [1] |
Population | 10 2001 Census [2] |
• Density | 3/sq mi (1.2/km2) |
OS grid reference | SK832024 |
• London | 82 miles (132 km) SSE |
Unitary authority | |
Shire county | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | OAKHAM |
Postcode district | LE15 |
Dialling code | 01572 |
Police | Leicestershire |
Fire | Leicestershire |
Ambulance | East Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Leighfield is a civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. There is no settlement centre in the parish, only a few isolated properties. In the 2001 census it had a population of 10, which was the fourth smallest of Rutland's parish populations. [3] At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and was included in the civil parish of Ridlington. It shares its name with Leighfield Forest, a much larger area from Braunston-in-Rutland to Stockerston and from Skeffington to Ridlington, a triangle of land roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) in each direction. [4]
The village's name means 'Wood/clearing'. Spellings with the addition of the Old English word 'feld' meaning 'open land' started to appear from the 14th century. [5]
The Leighfield Way is a 7.4 miles (11.9 km) waymarked route joining the Leicestershire and Rutland Rounds at Belton-in-Rutland with the Hereward Way and Viking Way at Oakham. [6]
In the medieval period, Leighfield Forest was an extensive Royal forest straddling the borders of Rutland and Leicestershire. It included large numbers of sizeable wooded areas, which would mostly have been individually enclosed. The Forest also included roads, villages and farmland so was not ideal for Forest administration. [7] It had been created soon after Henry I became king in 1100 and it was initially known as the Forest of Rutland (although a significant portion was in Leicestershire). Sauvey Castle, near Withcote, was probably built by King John in 1211 as a secluded hunting lodge. In 1235 all the Leicestershire sections were released from Forest Law, and in 1299 an eastern section was similarly disafforested. [7]
Abuses by the Royal Officers would seem to have been at least as big a problem as poaching by the lower orders. One forester was found to be keeping 300 pigs in the woods. In 1269 the forester Peter de Neville was arraigned by the king's justices for taking for his own use timber, firewood and charcoal to the amount of 7,000 oaks and other trees. [7] At least four deer parks were enclosed within the Forest, at Lyddington, Ridlington, Flitteriss Park and Cold Overton Park. Of these only Cold Overton still has ancient woodland. [7] By the late 16th century, the Hastings family of Ashby de la Zouch were the Forest Wardens. It was by then known as Leighfield Forest, and was administered as three bailiwicks: Braunston, Ridlington and Beaumont. 33 individual woods are named in an inquisition of 1566, totalling 1060 acres. [7]
The end of the Forest came about in 1630 when Charles I removed the royal protection, and sold off his lands. It was rapidly given over to agriculture, whether pasture or tillage, and by 1700 nearly all the woodland has been cleared. The surviving ancient woodlands in the area include Prior's Coppice, Bolt Wood, Owston Woods, Skeffington Woods (listed as Leighfield Forest SSSI), Great Merrible Wood, the Launde woods, Wardley Wood and Stoke Dry Wood. [7] The greater part of the former Forest, including Leighfield parish, is now an open landscape, although with species-rich hedgerows. [8] Removal of many hedgerows during the 20th century has made the Leighfield woodlands increasingly isolated, but the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust's 'Living Landscape' project has targeted Leighfield as one of its landscape-scale projects, and is working with the Forestry Commission to create new woodlands that can act as links between the ancient sites. [9]
Several fragments have been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest as Leighfield Forest SSSI. [10]
Charnwood Forest is an upland 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.
Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering 230 square miles (600 km2), the district is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the county.
Willesley is a place near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Originally in Derbyshire, it is now in north-westLeicestershire. In the 19th century it had a population of about 60 and Willesley Hall was the home of the Abney and later the Abney-Hastings family. Willesley is so small that it would be a hamlet except that it has a church.
Swithland Wood and The Brand is a 87.9 hectares 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 site, but the dating has been changed due to the discovery of trace fossils from the succeeding Cambrian period.
Braunston-in-Rutland is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population of the civil parish was 392 at the 2001 census, including Brooke and increasing to 502 at the 2011 census. Leicestershire lies on the parish's western boundary
Martinsthorpe is a civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England.
Wychwood or Wychwood Forest is a 501.7-hectare (1,240-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Witney in Oxfordshire. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 1, and an area of 263.4 hectares is a national nature reserve The site contains a long barrow dating to the Neolithic period, which is a scheduled monument.
Oakham was a rural district in Rutland, England from 1894 to 1974, covering the north of the county.
Westmeston is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England heavily dependent in amenities on larger Ditchling to the near-immediate northwest. It is four miles (6 km) south-southeast of Burgess Hill and (10 km) west of Lewes, on the northern slopes of the South Downs.
Wardley is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. The population at the 2001 census was 32. At the 2011 census the population remained less than 100 and is included in the civil parish of Ridlington. It is located about two miles (3 km) west of Uppingham, close to the A47.
Lawshall is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located around a mile off the A134 between Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, it is part of Babergh district. The parish has nine settlements comprising the three main settlements of The Street, Lambs Lane and Bury Road along with the six small hamlets of Audley End, Hanningfield Green, Harrow Green, Hart's Green, Hibb's Green and Lawshall Green.
Sauvey Castle is a medieval castle, near Withcote, Leicestershire, England. It was probably built by King John in 1211 as a secluded hunting lodge in Leighfield Forest. It comprised a ringwork or shell keep, with an adjacent bailey; earthwork dams were constructed to flood the area around the castle, creating a large, shallow moat. The castle was occupied by the Count of Aumale in the early reign of Henry III, but it then remained in the control of the Crown and was used by royal foresters until it fell into disuse in the 14th century. By the end of the 17th century, its walls and buildings had been dismantled or destroyed, leaving only the earthworks, which remain in a good condition in the 21st century.
Flitteriss Park is an ancient deer park in the English Midland counties of Leicestershire and Rutland west of Oakham. It is a modern livestock farm today but has a rich history.
Denny Lodge is a large civil parish in the New Forest in Hampshire, England. It covers a large area of heathland and woodland encompassing much of the eastern side of the New Forest, but contains no towns, villages, churches, or schools.
Frithy and Chadacre Woods is a 28.7 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the parishes of Lawshall and Shimpling in Suffolk, England.
Great Merrible Wood is a 12 hectare nature reserve east of Hallaton in Leicestershire. It is owned and managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and is part of the Eye Brook Valley Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Leighfield Forest SSSI is an 11.3 hectares biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Skeffington in Leicestershire, England. It consists of several fragments, including Tugby Wood, Loddington Reddish, Brown's Wood, Skeffington Wood and Tilton Wood, of the former medieval hunting Leighfield Forest, which straddles Leicestershire and Rutland. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade II.
Bolt Wood is near to the western boundary of the Parish of Stockerston, Leicestershire, England. It is suggested that the woodland on this boundary is part of that mentioned in the Domesday Book. Bolt Wood was part of the extensive Royal medieval Leighfield Forest. The first written reference to Bolt Wood is in an undated charter probably dating before the reign of Henry VI, in which it is referred to as 'Boutewood'. An alternative date offered is between 1422 and 1461.
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