SITE 150 BRICKYARD FARM BUILDINGS AND PADDOCK

19th March 2003

The day of our first visit was a beautiful, warm spring day. This is Brickyard Farm but no actual farmhouse remains, just a range of outbuildings. It is a working farm and at the time of our visit the cows were calving. The fields around the farm are pasture for the animals.
This area really was a brickyard but no historical details are available although there is evidence of clay pits.
The area of Brickyard Farm is covered in Sites 150-156.
Included in the main site 150 is a small paddock to the right of the entrance drive with a boundary to The Ridings and one to Swithland Lane and another to the left of the entrance drive with its front boundary on The Ridings.
The paddock to the right shows evidence of holding water as the vegetation looks very wet and there is a definite showing basin clearly showing. There are 3 Walnut Trees and evidence of one, possibly two, others but the stumps are hidden in the debris surrounding them. The largest walnut has a girth of 3.2m, which is a good size for a walnut, the others have a girth of 2.6m and 2.0m. There is evidence of fruiting.

There is an old pump nearest the largest walnut and the handle still works. It would be interesting to find out what this paddock was used for. We also found the stolen Rothley Millennium Sign face down in the vegetation so the Rothley Parish Council was informed.
There is a lovely spread of Common Dog Violet near the walnuts on the boundary with The Ridings.

20th April 2003

A bitterly cold day after the glorious hot, sunny weather we had previously enjoyed. We returned to look at the paddock to the left of the driveway. According to old maps there should be a pond on this piece of land next to the hedgerow by the road and the next field boundary. This pond does not now exist but where it might have been was wired off leaving an area with moss but very little other vegetation apart from saplings.