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.

Bardon Hill

Saturday 16th February 2013

Last week I wrote about the best hills in Leicestershire, Beacon Hill and Old John, both contained within country parks, and both are deservedly very popular. However, neither of these two are the highest hill in Leicestershire as that honour lies with Bardon Hill, which is not within a country park but on land owned by Bardon Aggregates, a quarrying company. This company operates throughout the UK but is based at Bardon Hill where they have what they describe as a super quarry producing over a million tonnes of crushed rock each year. This has resulted in a lot of Bardon Hill no longer actually remaining, however the summit is still intact and a public right-of-way exists to the top. Due to the edge of this huge quarry being just a couple of metres from the summit I don’t visit the top of Bardon Hill as often as the other two hills mentioned last week, but if I am taking a full excursion across Charnwood Forest then Bardon Hill is usually tagged on even though this means a long diversion across the M1 and back again to encompass all three of the great hills of Leicestershire.

Last March my father mentioned that he’d never been up Bardon Hill so during an unseasonably warm dry spell I took him up to the highest point in Leicestershire, and then last Saturday I decided to repeat that walk, on my own, with a few diversions to explore the surrounding area. As in March I parked at the car park for the nearby Local Nature Reserve of Billa Barra Hill. Instead of heading straight towards Bardon Hill as in March I headed in the opposite direction towards the village of Stanton Under Bardon soon taking a footpath across an old mineral railway and past some allotments near the village. From there I took a path across the edge of a field to a wood where a steep, very muddy path took me to the top of the small ridge. With all the rain that has fallen in the last year a walk in the countryside at the moment is fraught with difficulty as the ground is saturated soon leaving any shoes that you’re wearing soaked and thick with mud.

My feet were staying dry thanks to the SealSkinz socks that I’d started using over the New Year in the Lake District, but it was still very slippery and tricky trying to climb the short slope to the top of the ridge where I was confronted by a big quarry. This is not Bardon Hill Quarry but Cliffe Hill Quarry operated by Midland Quarry Products. The ridge that I was now walking along is made from the spoils of the quarry and the trees I’d walked through have been planted as a screen to block the unsightly view of the quarry. This ‘Good Neighbour Scheme’ has created a lovely walk through woodland along the top of these mounds so despite the mud I had an enjoyable walk along to the end of the ridge where I slipped down the hill past a couple of ponds and onto a road. A short walk along the road brought me onto the busy A511 with Bardon Hill ahead of me. I passed by Bardon Park Chapel, the oldest non-conformist place of worship in Leicestershire, and headed along a lane to a rather fine group of farm buildings past which I found the footpath sign that I’d been looking for.

With Bardon Hill ahead of me I waded along a particularly wet path until I reached a familiar field edge where I joined the direct route from Billa Barra that I’d taken in March (my diversion over), and the route that until now I had always taken to reach Bardon Hill. A steady climb brought me to a tarmac road, up some wooden steps and across a wide, muddy quarry road. Now the walk improved immensely as the path climbed steeply through heathland thinly planted with trees towards a radio mast at the top of the hill. Just before reaching the mast I diverted along the top of the summit ridge to the trig point that marks the top of the hill. Up until this point my climb up Bardon Hill hadn’t been spoilt by a view of the quarry, but at the summit a wire fence barred further progress just a short distance from the cliff edge of the quarry. This enormous quarry is always a jaw-dropping sight no matter how many times I’ve seen it, but I’m sure the hill was a much more enjoyable place to walk when a big quarry hadn’t consumed half of it.

From the top of Bardon Hill I followed a path along the top, past the radio mast and around the top of the cliff, to an area of heathland that affords views of the summit including the sheer cliff edge a short distance away from the summit. I followed this path down the hill through woodland around the eastern edge of the hill and back to my outward route. As in March, and as on most of my visits to Bardon Hill, I returned to Billa Barra passing Rise Rocks Farm and across the A511. Since I’d gone around Billa Barra Hill at the start of the walk I decided that it would be a shame if I didn’t climb to the top of this small hill now to take in the splendid views that can be seen from the top. Billa Barra is an enjoyable little hill that benefits from being completely set aside for the benefit of the flora and fauna that make their home on the hill. At 235 metres it’s higher than Old John but not as high as Bardon Hill’s lofty (relatively speaking) 278 metres. There has been and still is a lot of quarrying being carried out in Leicestershire, but rather than this being a problem for walkers it has actually provoked the creation of some lovely landscaped woodland. Despite the mud it was good to climb the highest hill in what I once heard someone describe as the Highlands of Leicestershire.