Date: 30th March 2002

Our first visit to look at the site. There has been a Rookery in this area for years and 32 nests were counted.

4th September 2002

This visit was to measure an Oak on the far side of the field close to the railings around the Rothley Court Hotel. This is the largest tree in Rothley and recorded as Oak Tree 100 with a girth of 7.51m, 24feet 8 inches. In lovely condition for its age.

5th February 2005

This was the start of a very big job to record and measure all the trees in Rothley Park. I have named it Cricket Ground Field as this is most easily recognised. On old maps it was shown as two fields, one called Great Brick Close and the other Little Brick Close, the latter being the area next to the Rothley Court Hotel Car Park where the boundary curves down to Rothley Brook. There is no evidence now of a boundary.

There is a part of this area with access from Town Green Street which is now a Cider Apple Orchard, Site 145, and I understand that there used to be an orchard here in the past. The current orchard is on a site known from old maps as J.P's Backyard.

The biggest tree on this site has already been measured but there are many others with good girths. All the trees will be measured to build up a picture of when and why they were planted.

Thomas Babington's Carriageway runs through this piece of parkland and this will be plotted.

The size of the trees might also help us to locate a site for a Mill and also the extent of Temple Water, part of Rothley Brook, which is shown on old maps as covering a wide area and used by the family for boating and pleasure.

11^th April 2005

More tree measuring after negotiating electric fences to keep horses in various parts of the field.

An interesting find was that two trees had a small oval metal label attached, one numbered 0135 and the other 0139. These were high up on the trunk and found quite by chance as they blended in so well with the bark. I will now need to check out all the other trees to see if there are any more. I then have to find out why and when they were attached and if any records relating to them exist.

14^th April 2005

The final tree measuring today. 151 girths in this field! It has been a very big task but my reason for recording every tree is so that when we get around to researching the history of the landscaping of the grounds of The Temple the differing groups of girths will help with the dates.

Old maps show that tree planting took place in 1727, 1733, 1745, 1753, 1780 and 1784. These dates come from a map prepared for Thomas Babington in 1819 and the tree planting dates added in script by Thomas Babington in 1823.

22^nd November 2008

A very sad day when a visit was made to view the 8 mature trees cut down due to disease. That many of them were close to a public footpath must have had a bearing on the decision to cut them right down. A fabulous Red Oak lost its life when the parcel of land it stood on was conveyed to a house owner to extend the garden together with a mature Lime Tree.

Please click on the following link to see the general views of this lovely parkland.

For list of trees, species and girth in Rothley Park Cricket Ground Field please click on the following links:

Take a carriage ride from the old A6 over the old stone bridge into Rothley Park before alighting at The Temple by clicking on the following link:

A Planning Application was turned down in January 2015 for the building of houses within Rothley Park with access from the far end of Town Green Street.