Glen Parva Nature Reserve and Everards Meadows

A coronavirus walk

With the lockdown continuing I have been unable to drive anywhere for a walk and this has forced me to explore the area where I live and I have discovered somewhere new. Everards is the local brewery in Leicestershire and they have recently moved one of their breweries from beside the Fosse Park shopping centre to the other side of the busy main road. As part of the project they purchased the nearby meadows that run down to the River Soar and last summer opened them up to the public, but I didn’t take the opportunity at the time to explore the area until the current situation encouraged me to look closer to home for my walking. The main entrance is on the main road, but for those on foot, or cycle, an alternative entrance has been provided from the Glen Hills Nature Reserve. There are a variety of ways to enter the reserve with possibly the best being from Needham Avenue in Glen Parva, to the south-west of Leicester, onto the cycle path that follows the course of the old Great Central Railway through the Soar Valley, immediately coming off the Great Central Way to enter the meadows and woods of the Glen Parva and Glen Hills Nature Reserves.

I have noticed that since lockdown many paths have become much clearer even in fields that technically don’t have public access indicating that people are going for walks in fields irrespective of whether there is a right-of-way. There is a footpath that runs from the southern end of Cork Lane along a gorgeous overgrown lane before slowly descending to the Grand Union Canal. I have recently been reluctant to walk along the towpath beside the canal as it is too narrow to allow for proper social distancing when passing other people, so it would seem like a good idea to be able to walk on the other side of the canal from this footpath into the nature reserve, however this is not technically possible. There is a field that doesn’t have public access between the footpath and the nature reserve, but this has not stopped some people walking through the fields on either side of the path and leaving clear trails. It is a shame there is not better legal access in the area.

At the southern end of the Glen Parva Nature Reserve are several wildflower meadows, although I have never seen much in the way of wild flowers when I have been there, which until recently is not often. Now I like to wander through these meadows beside the canal, on the far bank from the towpath, where there is plenty of room to keep a proper distance from other people. Glen Hills Nature Reserve is location in the middle of Glen Parva Nature Reserve and is largely wooded, but is very small and soon leads to a track that runs from the Great Central Way down to Blue Bank Lock Bridge over the canal. It is at this point that Everards have built the access to their site providing a wide bridge over the River Soar. A tarmacked cycle path heads off towards the new brewery, coffee shop and car park, but beaten trails through the grassy meadows branch off on either side so I turn right to follow the River Soar into Ratby Meadow. There has always been public access to this field, but it was not easy to get to and has, until recently, had no exit across the river.

Thanks to Everards it is now part of the wider Everards Meadows so has more appeal to me that it did when I first explored the area many years ago. Now I am easily able to get to the field and walk alongside the River Soar through the beautiful scenery beside the meadow that at this time of the year is decorated with cuckooflower with its delicate pale lilac fading to white flowers. Moving out of Ratby Meadow I am able to follow the wide sweep of the River Soar around the edge of the meadows to reach the edge of the park beside the main road where I turn back towards Ratby Meadow, but branching right I enter a neighbouring field and soon in the distance I can see the complex of recently built buildings at the western end of Everards Meadows where construction work is still continuing on the new brewery. Here is one of the tarmac cycle paths and I follow this towards the car parks, but before crossing a bridge I come off the cycle path and head south beside a meadow that seems to be covered in cuckooflowers.

Crossing another tarmacked cycle path I continue south skirting the edge of the headquarters for the Leicestershire constabulary through a meadow that also seems to be overflowing with wild flowers. I don’t know how these meadows are going to develop in the next couple of months as this is the first year I have visited the site, so I am eager to see what wild flowers will appear as we approach the summer. Soon I reach the right-of-way that gives access to Ratby Meadow and provides an alternative exit to the site along Ratby Meadow Lane, but to return to Glen Parva I turn left and briefly follow the right-of-way, keeping straight ahead when it turns sharply left. One final meadow brings me back to the new bridge over the River Soar and after crossing the canal I climb up beside Glen Hills Nature Reserve to the old railway line. To finish the walk I cross the Great Central Way and enter the ancient woodland of Aylestone Holt Spinney, which in spring is decorated with many wild flowers including bluebells and snowdrops. In the past I had given the Soar Valley little regard as I drove past it on my way to more interesting places even if those are still in Leicestershire like Charnwood Forest, but at this time when I am unable to drive anywhere for a walk I am discovering places on my doorstep that are suddenly greater than I had thought.