Leicester - Bradgate Park - 1907 Valentines postcard Loughborough pmk

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Bradgate Park near Leicester
• Publisher:  Valentines
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  Edgward VII light green half d.
• Postmark(s):  Loughborough Oct 28 1907 cds
• Sent to:  Miss E. Childs, Tollerton Rectory, Nottingham
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Bradgate Park is a public park in Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire, England, just northwest of Leicester. It covers 850 acres (3 km²). The park lies between the villages of Newtown Linford, Anstey, Cropston, Woodhouse Eaves and Swithland. The River Lin runs through the park, flowing into Cropston Reservoir which was constructed on part of the park. To the north-east lies Swithland Wood. The park's two well known landmarks, Old John and the war memorial, both lie close to the 200m contour.^[2]

The area now enclosed as Bradgate Park was one of a number of parks surrounding Charnwood Forest. Since medieval times it has been part of the Manor of Groby.^[3] In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the area was owned by Ulf, and the manor, along with some 100 others in and around Leicestershire, was awarded to Hugh de Grandmesnil in the eleventh century as reward for his assistance in battle to William I.^[4] The name Bradgate is thought to derive from Norse or Anglo-Saxon, meaning 'broad road' or 'broad gate' respectively.^[4] The first mention of Bradgate Park is from 1241, by which time it was laid out as a hunting park, although rather smaller than the current boundary.^[3] It was subsequently acquired by the Beaumont family, passing to the de Quincy family and on to William de Ferrers of Groby. It remained in the de Ferrers family until 1445, when it passed to the Grey family after William's only surviving daughter married Edward Grey.^[4] The inquisition into the estates of de Ferrers, made after his death, mentions the park, with ""herbage, pannage and underwood, worth 40 shillings yearly"".^[5] The Grey family retained it for the next 500 years until, in 1928 it was given, as a plaque in the park describes, 'to be preserved in its natural state for the quiet enjoyment of the people of Leicestershire'.

The park was originally enclosed using a bank and ditch topped by vertical pales of oak. These first ditchworks cross the River Lyn east of the Little Matlock Gorge. A parker, living in a moated house, was the only occupant, maintaining stocks of deer for the lord of Groby Manor to hunt.^[3] The park was greatly extended by the first marquis in the late 1400s, to occupy land previously farmed by both Newtown Linford and the now lost village of Bradgate.^[3] Lichen dating of the dry-stone walls suggest that the north and west boundary walls were built in the 17th and early 18th centuries, when Bradgate was still occupied by the earls of Stamford. The walled spinneys are a later feature, built and planted in the early 19th century as coverts for shooting.^[4] The park still has herds of red and fallow deer, which probably have an unbroken occupancy since medieval times.^[3]

Edward Grey's son Sir John Grey of Groby married Elizabeth Woodville, who after John's death married King Edward IV. Their son Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset prepared for building Bradgate House in the late fifteenth century but died before he was able to begin. It was his son Thomas Grey, 2nd marquis of Dorset who built Bradgate House, the likely completion date being 1520.^[6] This is one of the first unfortified great houses in England, and one of the earliest post-Roman use of bricks. It was lived in by the Grey family for the next 220 years. It is believed that the house was the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, later Queen, ruling for a mere 9 days before being overthrown by Mary I. Jane was executed in 1553 and when her father was executed the following year the estate passed to the crown. Local history claims that groundskeepers marked the occasion of Jane's execution by pollarding the estate's oak trees in a symbolic beheading. Examples of pollarded oaks can still be seen in the park.^[7] In 1563 the family regained favour, and the Groby manor, including Bradgate, was restored to Jane's Uncle, Lord John Grey of Pirgo.^[3] His great-grandson was made earl of Stamford. Later earls acquired estates in Enville, Staffordshire, and Dunham Massey, Cheshire, and sometime after 1739 they moved out of Bradgate, which began a long decline.^[3] The spectacular ruins of the house are still visible at the centre of the park.^[8][9] The house was approximately 200 feet long, featuring a main hall measuring 80 feet by 30 feet. As well as considerable remains of walls and fireplaces, it has four truncated towers, and the chapel is still intact,^[4] containing a tomb effigy to Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford and his wife.^[10] In the mid-nineteenth century, when the Grey family again wished to stay in the area, they built a new hall, which they also called Bradgate House, 2 miles to the southwest, which was demolished after the Grey estates were finally sold in the 1920s.^[3]

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=leicestershire

number of items=single

period=pre - 1914

postage condition=posted