SITE 253 ROTHLEY LODGE WILDLIFE SITE

OS REF:SK592141

It was announced in March 2013 that this land has now been leased to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust by Charnwood Borough Council. Charnwood Wildlife, as part of Charnwood Borough Council, does not now exist.

Date: 16th August 2006

This first visit was to see how the land had changed since the building of the LPC Industrial units in 2005/6. (Site 304)

Charnwood Wildlife has all the details about the land, which is owned now by Charnwood Borough Council after the demolition of Rothley Lodge Farm and the permission to build for industry. The land all around the units will be known as the Charnwood Lodge Wildlife Site and overseen by Charnwood Wildlife. It may at some point be leased or given to the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust as they now have the Soar Valley land as part of their Nature Reserves from Wanlip Meadows, Cossington Meadows, with Rothley Lodge Wildlife Site, then Mountsorrel Meadows (Site 254). We must make sure that it retains the name of Rothley if this happens.

Date: 16th August 2006

Brian and I met by chance Ron Pennington at the site who is the Managing Director of the LPC and he told us about the planting of the trees all around the perimeter, the formation of the pond to take run-off from the site, and the land that it covered for wildlife. Françoise Scrire from Charnwood Wildlife was doing a survey of the land so that was very useful as she was able to tell me what was happening. I arranged to visit her at Charnwood Borough Council to find out more, especially which land in Rothley was to be included in Mountsorrel Meadows.

We had a walk around the wildlife area and took photographs. A return visit will be made as it was very active with birds and it would be interesting to keep a record.

9^th September 2006.

A return visit was made with Christine Nelson to look at the birds and walk the area. It was really good around the pond that I have named Pennington's Pond after Ron. (Pond 34, Site 305).

We recorded 50+ Goldfinches, 45 Linnets, 2 Pied wagtails and 2 Hobbies, one of which sat in a tree giving good views.

More photographs were taken of the young trees in Site 304 LPC, which will soon need re-tying, but this work is still under contract. Weedkiller is sprayed all around the planting, which perhaps gives the young roots a chance, but there is nothing to stop the banks losing their topsoil when it rains. There was a lot of evidence of this.

We again met Ron Pennington who was walking along the path to the pond so we had another discussion about the trees and plantings. He knows what has been planted and the state of the trees, especially a few of the larger ones that have died. Hopefully they will be replaced at a suitable time. When they have all grown up the industrial units will be nicely hidden and it should be a very good place for wildlife assuming that dogs are kept under control as there are footpaths through the site and along the River Soar.

15^th June 2008

Brian and I parked at the Wyevale Garden Centre and cut through to the footpath that runs to Sileby Mill through the Rothley Lodge Wildlife Site. The fields look lovely as they have been allowed to grow with abundant grasses and will hopefully grow into colourful mixed wildflower meadows. There was much evidence of damselflies and other wildlife but no time to do any sort of survey. This will have to happen when I have finished all my 'admin' recording the actual sites in the parish.

The main objective of this visit was to plot the extent of the LPC (Leicester Paper Company) and to take photographs of the area.

The area from the back of the Garden Centre where the footpath runs along the LPC boundary is developing into a really good wildlife area. These 'pockets' of land are great as long as the weedkiller does not get used.

Since starting this project to records fields in Rothley this is the area that has seen great change with the building of the Leicester Paper Company and changes to field boundaries. The site numbering has had to change because fields that were there when the project started are no longer recognisable. To look at the whole area please click on the following sites as they form the new Rothley Lodge Wildlife Site:

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