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The Willesley site lies at the centre of the Leicestershire Coal Measures belt and it is possible that mine shafts existed on the site from very early times. The earliest records for coal mining in Leicestershire and South Derbyshire go back to the early thirteenth century; although it is likely that coal was mined before this time, possibly back to pre-historic times. During the mediaeval period Leicester Abbey owned the lands of Oakthorpe and was known to burn coal supplied by packhorse and cart from its lands; it is likely that the coal came from Oakthorpe. The first record of mining at Oakthorpe dates from 1412 and suggests that it had been established for some time. From the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries landowners and yeomen farmers made their living from a mixed economy of mining and agriculture; in 1606 Oakthorpe mine produced some 3000 tons of coal and employed around 20 men; local timber was already in short supply and being imported from Castle Gresley.
The map of coal pits for 1600 shows 6 pits between Oakthorpe
and Measham with 3 of them in the approximate area of Willesley. It is interesting
to note that compensation for damage caused to the land by mining was being
paid to tenants in 1635; this damage could have been caused by land subsidence,
surface drainage, the excavation of shafts or extraction transport routes:
Drainage
then, as now was a problem to the miners along the Saltersford valley with
its poorly drained clay soil. By 1660 the country, under Charles II was recovering
from the privations of Cromwell’s Commonwealth which had exploited the rich
forest reserves to expand the economy, paying little heed to the need for
sustaining resources and much of the most valuable timber had been felled
and not replaced (a typical warship could consume 3800 trees, grown on 75
acres of prime woodland). Smaller timbers from the clearances would be used
continually for pit supports. It can therefore be assumed that the landscape
of Oakthorpe / Willesley would be largely open common and heath land used
for pasture and arable fields with smaller stands of trees remaining for hunting
cover or possibly being replanted towards the end of the seventeenth century.Major
expansion of the Leicestershire coalfield continued from the middle of the
eighteenth century until the end of the nineteenth century when its heyday
was almost over and the canal was starting to decline in favour of the railway.
By the middle of the twentieth century the deep mines were all closed and
had been replaced with opencast mining, running in two phases; the first during
the 1940’s and early 1950’s took shallow deposits and the later phase from
the early 1980’s and continuing into the twenty first century, taking a deeper
cut. Oakthorpe Colliery, a deep mine, which closed in 1885 lies on the western
boundary, and is now a landscaped picnic site owned by Leicestershire County
Council; remains of the pithead and traces of the Ashby Canal route can be
seen. Today opencast mining continues to the north and southeast of the Willesley
site in its second cycle of extraction and areas adjacent to the site contain
further coal deposits.
The Landscape.
The woodland character of the area has undoubtedly been affected by mining activity from the earliest days; it is reasonable to assume that the surrounding forest would have been cut and managed for pit props and charcoal from mediaeval times.
Enclosure records for Oakthorpe Pasture exist from 1755 and there is evidence
of common land and areas of heath from 1749. From the maps that exist (originals
dated 1810, 1825/32 and 1859 are held in Ashby Museum) there is no evidence
of Ancient Woodland being left intact and most of the Willesley site was cultivated
as pasture (meadows with some lines of trees, possibly older boundary markers)
and arable fields during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Low lying areas would revert to wet grassland if left
uncultivated (for example when the men were called away to war, as happened
in the Civil War), resulting in spectacular displays of flowers within a short
time. 
The
two small areas of woodland adjacent to the site and Willesley Woodside on
the southeast corner are marked as plantations as far back as c.1810 and contain
some indicators of ancient woodland, such as these Wood Anemone 
which leads to the supposition that they could be replanted remnants of ancient
woodland. Neglected areas would quickly return to heathland in the higher
areas until returned to agriculture. 
From the parish map of 1885 it appears that some landscaping had taken place
during the eighteenth century with the planting or retention of small areas
of deciduous trees for sporting or amenity purposes, possibly as an extension
of the Willesley estate to the east.