SITE 268 WEST SAND PIT FIELD

There is no public access to this field.

Date:21st February 2009

This is another lovely field that has been utterly ruined by horses. The gateway at the time of our visit was in such a muddy state that we could not get through it. We had to roll under barbed wire on the Westfield Lane boundary. Apart from the mess of the churned up ground the people who use it for their horses have left a lot of unsightly litter close to the gate.

When I took a photo of this field in March 2007 there was still a good sized Oak close to the gate which blew down last year destroying the shed beneath it. The tree still lies there.

There used to be a hedgerow as shown on old maps and the ancient trees are still on this hedge line. The nearest tree to Westfield Lane is an Oak in poor condition as there is no bark on its truck from one metre above ground level and has been recorded as Tree 627.

The second tree is a good sized Ash recorded as Tree 628 with a girth of 3.5m and is in better condition but still with lots of wounds. Trees 627 and 628 both were part of the hedgerow.

Oak Tree 629 is also in a very poor state with over half its main branches being dead. At this point, where the old hedgerow used to be, there is a modern laurel hedge planted by the owners of the house having part of the field for their garden. Tree 630 is in a better state and is an Ash with a girth of 3.9m.

As this land used to be part of the old Rothley Temple Estate these trees have great historical value and it is sad to see them so badly neglected.

There are two pond sites in this field Pond 43 and Pond 44. Both ponds would have been in separate fields before the hedgerow mentioned above was removed. Both ponds are showing on the 1884 map.

We shall be back in this field to record the ancient boundary in a separate project (RATS)

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