Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Bradgate Park (March 24th)

I am posting trips in no particular order. Not everything is downloading yet (939 pictures taken)
This is Bradgate Park, which is near Leicester. It is a walled estate, and the fallow deer were imported by the Normans to provide entertainment for guests. We saw literally hundreds of deer as we walked. There were dogs all over the place. The deer were unruffled and relaxed. The herd is culled regularly, and the venison is sold to help support the park. 
The walls were built like so...
...and went on for miles

 This is a red deer which was also brought in by the same Normans that brought in the fallow deer. We did not see any of these. They seem to be much more wary. They are bigger in body than the fallow deer. Just the fact that we are viewing the descendants of a medieval deer herd was amazing to me. 
These are the what is left of Lady Jane Grey's childhood home. The house is in ruins, and we could not walk inside the walls, but as I understand it there is a crypt within that contains the bones of her parents. She, herself, was beheaded at the Tower of London and is buried there, in the chapel of St Peter. 



                                      

 The front gate. 


The driveway leading to it. 

This oak tree is HUGE. I have another picture of Colin and Cara standing within it. If I posted it, they would kill me, so I won't. You'll have to take my word for it. They were not crowded for space either. They look quite small in it, as a matter of fact. 

This is 'Old John', which is a monument supposedly named after a servant who died in a bonfire accident. It was a tower from which to view horseracing from. 

A hedgehog portal access in the fence. There was a well worn trail coming from it. 
Alas, I saw no hedgehog.


So many paths to choose. All of them gorgeous. 

We had a wonderful picnic there to enjoy the scenery. The weather was beautiful. 

12 comments:

  1. Does the hedgehog portal take them to another dimension? Great photos.

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  2. The ‘pedigree’ of the deer is quite wonderful. I think you had a very fine trip.

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  3. Northsider, I think maybe it did, because I did not see a one of them, sad to report. But now that you've brought it up, I've been pondering it. I believe portal is the wrong word.

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  4. You will now be able to go through these at your leisure an reflect on what a good time you had.

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  5. Well, as hedgehogs are nocturnal it would be unusual to see them out and about during the day.
    Bradgate Park looks like a lovely place for a picnic.

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  6. Stick with portal. I like the sound of it.

    That is a whopper of a tree!

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  7. Well, now, There is a new factoid to tuck away. Hedgehogs are nocturnal!

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  8. The oak tree is amazing and I assume still alive.

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  9. Thanks to your post and Wikipedia, I'm more tutored on the subject of Lady Jane Grey.

    I wonder if our whitetail deer are close cousins to the red deer as they look very similar in size and shape of antlers?

    Love the picture of that old snag of a tree. Makes one ponder all the events it has seen over the years.

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  10. Ed, I have to thank you. I had meant to verify Gray vs Grey and forgot. Thanks for the reminder. That tree IS amazing. Even more amazing? It was in a grove of like sized oaks. Over hundreds of years the trees have been struck by lightning. Yet they are still alive!

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  11. It's hard to see a hedgehog in the wild -- as mentioned above, they're nocturnal. I've only ever seen them squashed on roads. (Sadly!)

    Dogs and deer can occasionally be a bad mixture. But if you have well-behaved dogs everything is fine. Olga has been among deer (and sheep as well) and she doesn't disturb them.

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  12. When we were in Germany the dogs were very well behaved(trained). People could take them almost anywhere, it was not allowed to leave them home along but for a certain amount of hours a day. They could not be tied out and left. But when My son was in Afghanastan a number of times (Army) and he said most of the dogs there were very mean and the people were afraid of them. Even playing a sound of dogs barking sent fear in the people.

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