Public Woodland
After the closing of the quarries the area continued to be an important woodland resource, with active timber management and planting by the Grey Estate. However in 1921, as part of a wholesale disposal of the Bradgate Estate lands, the woods, along with two local farms, were bought by William Gimson. Two adjacent areas of woodland totalling 137 acres (554,000 m²) were offered to the Rotary Club of Leicester in order to preserve these important ancient woodlands and provide public access for the benefit of the people of Leicester and Leicestershire in perpetuity. A Charitable Trust was established and a fund-raising appeal raised £6,000 (more than half of it from members of the Rotary Club itself) which covered not only the £3,000 purchase price but also renewed fencing, woodland management works and public access facilities. The Rotary Club employed rangers and managed the country park directly for seven years. On the rock face of the Great Pit is an inscription recording the Rotary Club's donation which reads "The Leicester Rotary Club Secured Swithland Wood For A National Heritage".
The area is notable in spring for its bluebells and other spring flowering bulbs which cover large areas of the woodland floor. In 1927 the Rotary Club, in partnership with Swithland Parish Church, initiated an annual Bluebell Service by the Great Pit, and this tradition continues, with the Bluebell Service being held on the afternoon of the third or fourth Sunday of April.
In 1928 a leading Leicester businessman, Charles Bennion, similarly bought the adjacent and larger Bradgate Park for preservation and the public benefit, vested in a Charitable Trust supported by the Leicester and Leicestershire City and County Councils and the National Trust. In 1931, with the Bradgate Park Trust fully established, the Rotary Club offered to merge Swithland Wood with Bradgate Park. This was readily agreed by all parties and the two Trusts were combined as the Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood Trust. Since then Swithland Woods has been managed by the Trust rather than the Rotary Club, open to the public, and greatly appreciated for its conservation and leisure value.
Read more about this topic: Swithland Wood
Famous quotes containing the words public and/or woodland:
“Don’t you go believing in sayings, Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was reminded that our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)