Following my accompanied walk around the Garendon Estate recently, which I shared with you a while ago, I’ve done a bit of reading up about the park.
Deer parks were very common in mediaeval times, and were a status symbol used by the lord of the manor for hunting. They were spread across England, with Leicestershire having about 46 over a period of time. Although many of these started small – perhaps an enclosure not suitable for hunting, where half a dozen or so deer might be kept – the parks often grew quite large, usually to about 100-200 acres, but could sometimes be much bigger.
It seems that local historians [1] believe that Garendon was never a mediaeval deer hunting park, despite that deer were kept there until relatively recently.
The origins of the estate begin with the creation of an abbey – Garendon Abbey – the second Cistercian abbey to be formed in this country, sometime after 1129, which lasted until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. The abbey also had lands in Dishley, where deer were kept, but this was for food, rather than for hunting.
The estate passed into private ownership, and a hall was constructed, in what became known as Garendon Park. So, this was not a mediaeval park which would have been uncultivated and wooded, but more of a landscaped park, that were popular in the 1700s. Any deer introduced might have been a feature of the park at this time.
Anyway, the views from the temple of Venus and the triumphal arch were quite extensive. Had I been better at taking photographs I’d be able to show you the stunning views that I saw, but my photos are not that good, so only serve to give you an idea of the area. Also, looking back on them now, I cannot say for certain which direction I am looking in!!!
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| Looking towards the power station |
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| Looking at the old Fisons R&D site |
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| View of the obelisk |
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| View towards the A512 and the motorway junction |
Notes
[1] Squires, A.E. and Humphrey, W. ‘The Medieval Parks
of Charnwood Forest’. Wymondham: Sycamore Press, 1986 AND Williams, B.C.J. ‘Garendon’
IN ‘The Bulletin of the Loughborough & District Archaeological Society’,
No.7, 1964
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posted by lynneaboutloughborough
With apologies for typos which are all mine!
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