Croft Hill

Saturday 15th September 2012

To conclude this short series looking at the hills of Leicestershire I turn to a hill not far from where I live that although of a low height commands wide-sweeping views across large parts of Leicestershire. Although I seem to recall my Father taking me up Croft Hill when I was a child, the first time in recent memory that I went up the hill was a couple of years ago after someone at work suggested it. On that occasion I walked from my house across towns and fields to the village of Croft and from there I proceeded up to the top of the hill. Even though I had enjoyed Croft Hill itself I was reluctant to return because it had been a long, dreary walk all the way to Croft and then another long walk back. Last Autumn I decided that I would go up Croft Hill again and this time I drove to the village of Croft and started the walk from there. This made for a much shorter walk, but also for a walk that was a lot more interesting.

I had been drawn to the area again when I saw on a map that there is a nature reserve near the village, so after parking the car that was where I headed first but I reached Croft Glebe first, which is an old parkland now managed by the Woodland Trust. At the time of the year that I did this walk the park was full of wild flowers that had turned to seed and tall grass that was swaying in the breeze. It didn’t take long for me to walk around this ten acre site so I soon left to cross over to the nearby Croft Pasture Nature Reserve, a fourteen acre area of unimproved grassland with the River Soar running through the middle. These two areas must be amazing in early summer when wild flowers would cover the grasslands in a blaze of colour, but in September the landscape was not so colourful being mainly overgrown with plants that had long past flowering. After spending some time exploring the area I set off back onto the road and headed up towards Croft Hill, which is owned by the same quarry company that owns Bardon Hill so has suffered the same fate with the summit being the sole surviving part of the hill.

A footpath through pretty woodland follows the road up to the start of a short, steep climb to the top of Croft Hill where the views were awe-inspiring, not just over the big quarry, not far from where I stood, but all around through 360°. Despite the desire to stay at the summit and gaze across the largely flat terrain of southern Leicestershire I eventually set off down the hill and through woodland along a path that passes disturbingly close to the edge of the quarry before slowly rising once more onto a hill created from the spoils of the quarry. This has been managed to create a pleasing area to walk along the top of the ridge, abundant in wildlife and planted with trees, though all too short. Before setting off from the top of the new hill I had a look at an information board that described Croft Hill as one of the ‘Ancient Mountains of Leicestershire’, which I found rather amusing, not just because there are no mountains in Leicestershire, but also because Croft Hill is only 128 metres high.

As I thought about this description I set off along the ridge created by the quarry waste past young trees and ancient granite boulders around the edge of the quarry. This description of ancient mountains in Leicestershire made me think it would be a good idea to write about some of these ancient mountains in my blog. I usually write about hills that are at least two or three thousand feet high, but here in Leicestershire we have hills that are not much more than two hundred metres high but are, in their own way, as mighty and ancient as any other in Britain or Ireland. I had a lovely stroll along the ridge in the sunshine, around the edge of the quarry, even though it was on wholly man-created terrain unlike Croft Hill itself. If New Hill is left to go wild, in a hundred years no one will be able to tell the difference. Unfortunately this hill has a problem in that it doesn’t lead anywhere. When the ridge came to an end I had to drop steeply down to the bottom of the hill and walk back along boarded paths to the foot of Croft Hill.

With the quarry buildings blocking a direct return to the village of Croft I had to return along my outward route, however there were enough paths to enable me to vary my route until I reached the foot of Croft Hill where I walked along the thin strip of woodland that lies between the road and the quarry edge. Eventually I reached my car in the village of Croft and I was happy with a good afternoon's walk up a hill that has far-reaching views and on a new hill landscaped to create a pleasant stroll. None of the hills in Leicestershire are very big, but they make up for their lack of height with an abundance of outcrops that puts much higher hills to shame and with wide-sweeping views to match.