The New National Forest

About trip

The National Forest ‘Plant a Tree’ scheme invites people to adopt a newly planted tree. In return you are invited to the planting event, receive an ‘adopters pack’ and an annual update on the growth and development of your woodland, plus details on sightings of animals, insects and plants seen there. For more information pick up a leaflet at Conkers Discovery Centre. Where to eat and drink: If you want a good local pub, try The Masons Arms on the crossroads at Donisthorpe and The Holly Bush at Oakthorpe. The tea rooms at Moira Furnace and the café and restaurant at Conkers Discovery Centre are both family-friendly. For a wider choice visit Ashby de la Zouch, 2.5 miles (4km) away. Directions: From the car park walk along the surfaced track as far as the site of the former colliery. Only the capped pitheads give any indication that this pleasant rural spot was once an industrial hub. Go left and follow the unmade path through the trees and veer left to the lake. On the far side leave the gravel track and walk along the open, grassy northern shore. Ignore the public footpath off to the left and continue beyond the water and along the left-hand side of a newly planted area. Willesley Wood is centred on what was once Oakthorpe Colliery and is now owned by the Woodland Trust. Since 1991, when it became one of the first National Forest planting sites, more than 75,000 trees and shrubs have been planted here. Altogether the Woodland Trust owns 17 separate woods in the National Forest, most of which have been newly created in areas previously devoid of extensive tree cover. About 100yds (91m) before you reach the gate to the lane, turn right. Walk past the notice board (explaining that the local Royal British Legion has created this new grove as an area of remembrance) and along a gravel path into the woods. On the far side go straight out along a wide grassy ride (not right, beside the woods), then in 50yds (46m) branch first right. Ignoring a fork to the left, continue to the end and turn left on to another grassy track. At the top of this go right, along a narrow path between gorse and bracken that opens out into the long and straight Pastures Lane. The National Forest covers around 200 square miles (518sq km) of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and since its inception in the early 1990s more than 7 million of the projected 30 million new trees have been planted. Of course this is a long-term project, so don’t expect a continuous swathe of woodland across the East Midlands for some years to come! The ambitious plan aims to blend pockets of ancient woodland, such as Charnwood and Needwood, with new broadleaved (60 per cent) and coniferous (40 per cent) plantations. Many of the new sites in north-west Leicestershire, like here at Willesley and Saltersford, are former coal mines that were abandoned after flooding, but the ensuing subsidence has since created artificial lakes or ‘flashes’, and large-scale reclamation projects have helped nature recolonise these former industrial zones. At the very far end of Pastures Lane, cross Measham Road and walk along New Street. Turn right at the end, opposite The Holly Bush pub, then branch off ahead/ right down Canal Street. At the turning bay at the end turn right on a public footpath along the bottom of a rough field. Half way across go through the gate on the left for a path through the trees into Saltersford Valley Picnic Area. (If this path is too overgrown, continue to the gate and path at the far corner of the field and turn left here.) Go left on to the main path for the easy loop of the woodland and lakes. When you have completed the short circuit and reached the main picnic area by the notice board go right and, at the circular car park, continue out on to Measham Road. Cross over to the pavement and turn right then, just past the 30mph sign, turn left for a public footpath across two fields. After crossing the second diagonally to the left – aiming for the yellow topped post on the far side – veer half right to join a bumpy and overgrown path past Lowlands Farm. The path keeps to the left of a small lake, with hawthorn trees in-between, and although narrow continues through patchy vegetation. After the second stile turn left to return to the capped pitheads and the path back to the car park. Just to the west of Oakthorpe the trackbed of the Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway has been transformed into the Ashby Woulds Heritage Trail. This runs north via the former Donisthorpe Colliery (now converted into a woodland park) and the preserved Moira Furnace, built in 1806 for iron-making and now a fascinating visitor attraction. It ends close to the Conkers Discovery Centre, near Moira (follow the signs on the trail or road), which is where you can learn much more about the National Forest. The huge site includes interactive exhibits, craft workshops, outdoor woodland trails and assault courses. If your children still have surplus energy left after the walk, let them go bonkers at Conkers!