Some time ago we spent a lovely summer’s day at Bradgate Park. It is an historic site having been closed off as an estate for hunting since 1281, but once open as part of the Charnwood Forest and having had bronze and iron age settlements recorded on the site. In 1445 the estate was owned by the Grey family, an influential family in Medieval and Tudor England. The family married into English Royalty, culminating in Lady Jane Grey’s birth in 1537 at Bradgate House within the estate. She was proclaimed Queen of England in 1553, a reign which lasted only nine days. Lady Jane Grey was executed for treason after being overthrown by Mary I.
The estate was passed to the people of Leicestershire by an industrialist who bought it from the then Lady Grey, the estate having grown in size to 1300 acres. Much of the site has since been designated a SSSI. Bradgate House is an unfortified brick-built country house with modifications added over the years, and it is now mostly in ruins. The extensive land appears to be well managed and protected. There are herds of fallow and red deer grazing on the land which have evidently been preserved as individual genetic lines on the same land for centuries due to the park being closed off from migrating herds. During my time there is saw birds of prey, and many Corvids on the park, along with egrets and various ducks.
Clare Lusher Photography 