Original area (marked in red) of 100 acres purchased in 1991. Additional area of 40 acres purchased from the National Forest in march 2002 (marked in green) and planted in February 2003. Notice that there is no lake; this was formed by mining subsidence in the early 1980's. You can still see the site of Oakthorpe Colliery (marked X) which closed in 1885. That site is now a County Council picnic site with Car Park and footpaths. You can also see the line of the tramway (dotted dark blue line) which ran from Willesley Basin on the Ashby canal (marked A) towards Ashby and carried limestone from quarries at Ticknall to the canal. The horseshoe bend in the canal is marked in light blue. The oblong marked R shows possible evidence of what might be the line of the Roman road that ran from Leicester to Chester and passed through Willesley (see Transport History page).
