103 THE SLANG

OS REF SK569124

My first visit was made on Wednesday 24th October 2001 when I walked the fields with Kathleen Hyman, the Tenant Farmer. The field names on the farm are those used by Kathleen. The Slang is a narrow field with three strips making it an unusual shape. There is also access for cattle to move freely into the adjoining Office Field Site 102.

On Monday 11th March 2002 I recorded:

This is an odd shaped piece of pasture with the entrance from The Ridgeway. There is a narrow strip with an Oak Tree standing at the head recorded as Tree 12 in this survey. The field then turns to the right where I recorded two good-sized Ash stumps, Tree 10 and Tree 11, which must have suffered damage, possibly lightening. Later information confirmed that these trees suffered from storm damage and were cut down for safety. (They did overhang a tennis court so would have given a lot of leaf litter.)
The field then turns left and has a boundary of a sand pit on one side and an interesting dry stone granite wall on the other side. This is getting obscured by a hedgerow. At the head of this part of the field is a lovely Oak Tree with a girth of 4.71m and recorded as Tree 9.

On Wednesday 13th March 2002:
Brian Verity, the Rothley Archaeological Warden, came to look at the features and noted the Ridge and Furrow.

On Wednesday 11th September 2002 I recorded:
We were on our way to another field but noticed a builder in a garden just at the Ancient Boundary and digging out a trench. Three large boulders were exposed and a digger was awaited to move them. As this garden is very close to the Roman Villa site Brian was keen to watch the digger at work. The owner was there and I said that it would be good to retain these stones and use them as a feature in his garden. The stones were very large and appeared to be flat bottomed but the builder could not see any workings on them to suggest that they had been chiseled to sit flat on the ground. It was an interesting morning.

On Wednesday 18th September 2002 I recorded:
Made a visit to record Ash Tree 103 as it looked vulnerable due to the above building works. It had a girth of 2.9m so only a little short of the 3m to class it as ancient. However, it is an important tree being on the Rothley Ancient Parish Boundary.

On Saturday 15th February 2003 I recorded:
We had heard that Ash Tree 103 had been cut down in November allegedly due to the storm on October 27th 2002. It was interesting to note that all three Ash trees along this boundary had been lost due to storm damage. What an amazing co-incidence.

16th October 2003
This was the first day of our Ecclesiastical Boundary Survey (Rothley Ancient Parish Boundary). The hedgerows, trees, humps and bumps were all recorded. This is the boundary where two other Ash Trees had been cut down but the stumps remained and one Ancient Ash Tree 103 that remained had been cut down. However, on this visit we found that Ash Tree stump Tree 103 had been completely removed and a fence erected where the huge boulders had been dug out earlier in the year. Photographic evidence of the trees recorded.

SADLY, KATHLEEN HYMAN DIED IN 2006 AND THE FARM WILL NO LONGER REMAIN IN THE HYMAN FAMILY AS TENANTS. FURTHER INFORMATION AWAITED.

3rd February 2007
Permission given for a further visit. Oak Tree 12 at the head of The Slang had blown over in the January gales so we went to record its demise. Brian was keen to check out the hole left by the torn out roots to see if there was any evidence of granite stones as the tree was on the Ancient Parish Boundary. He could find no evidence.
I took more photographs as it was five years since our original visit.
What will the future be for this working farm?

To find out more about the Rothley Ancient Parish Survey and the areas covered please click on the following link:

To return to the Landscape of Rothley and all the sites please click on the following link: