| Bardon Hill | |
|---|---|
Bardon Hill Quarry |
|
| Elevation | 278 m (912 ft) |
| Prominence | c. 170 m |
| Parent peak | Walton Hill |
| Listing | Marilyn, County Top |
| Location | |
| Location | Charnwood Forest, England |
| Topo map | OS Landranger 129 |
| OS grid | SK459131 |
Bardon Hill is a hill in the civil parish of Bardon near Coalville, Leicestershire. It the highest point in Leicestershire and the National Forest, 912 feet (278 m) above sea level. The hill has two very distinct faces – one half preserved as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), the other removed by Bardon Hill Quarry. Its summit has a radio mast. The second highest hill in Leicestershire is the nearby Beacon Hill.
"Bardon" or "Bardon Hill" was also the name of a village south-west of the actual hill. Most of the village has been demolished but the toponym "Bardon Hill" remains in use as the postal address of the remaining local properties.
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Bardon Hill has been the site of a quarry since at least 1622. A small quarry is shown on a map of 1835, with large scale working starting in 1857. The Leicester and Swannington Railway, opened in 1832 and taken over by the Midland Railway in 1845,[1] ran conveniently close to Bardon Hill. A short branch line from the quarry allowed the granite to be easily transported over the railway network. In 1877 the quarry was described as "great", and in 1890 as "much enlarged". It is currently owned by Aggregate Industries.
In 1840, the then deer park was chosen as a picnic spot for a visit by Queen Adelaide, the Queen Dowager. T. R. Potter describes the Royal scene in The History of Charnwood Forest:
Her Majesty, in a dress of elegant simplicity suited to the occasion, supported by Earl Howe, and her Royal sister (the Duchess of Saxe Weimar) by Lord Curzon, ascended the steep with great apparent ease. On arriving at the summit, upwards of an hour was spent in the enjoyment of the wonderful prospect, of which her Majesty frequently expressed her admiration – Lord Howe pointing out the many remarkable near and distinct objects which the fineness of the day brought within the reach of view.
The Queen’s repast was laid out on the grass on the east side of the Summer House, but her Majesty, finding the sun oppressive, wished to remove to the adjoining shade – and setting the example, took up the first dish, and was followed by the rest of the party, all bearing some portion of the viands. The place selected by the Queen for the rural banquet has since been named “Adelaide's Bower.”
The landscape was already attracting visitors before John Curtis wrote in the 1830s: he suggests that the view extends to over 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) or one twelfth of England and Wales. Potter also notes of the view from Bardon Hill that "it probably commands a greater extent of surface than any other point of view on the island" and that "An outline, described from the extremity of this view, would include nearly one-fourth of England and Wales. It may be deemed one of the most extraordinary points of view in Nature." This has attracted telecommunication companies, and large transmitters and radio masts have replaced both the Summer House and Queen Adelaide’s Bower. The view is still there and on a clear day you can see the Malvern and Shropshire Hills, summits in Derbyshire and Lincoln Cathedral. However the Sugar Loaf in South Wales, sometimes cited as visible from Bardon, cannot possibly be seen, being over 90 miles (140 km) away.[2]
Bardon Park was a medieval deer park, covering about 1,200 acres (490 ha). Bardon Hill was within the area of the park, and also Bardon Hall (see below). It is said that the area was emparked prior to AD 1300. The line of the southerly boundary of the park runs a few metres north of the A 11 road.
There is still deer within the area of Bardon park, as well as foxes and badgers. There are several breeding pairs of buzzard and peregrine as well as raven and barn owls.
The old hall was a moated house, in a shallow valley south of Bardon Hill. In the 1830s, a new hall was built half way up the hillside. The current hall is a gentleman's residence with a southerly aspect and with commanding views over the parkland. The old hall was demolished, probabaly at about the time the new hall was built, but the moat that surrounded the old hall remains. The current hall is a Grade II Listed building and it is the head office of Aggregate Industries, the owners of the Bardon Hill Quarry.
For several hundred years Bardon Hall was the home of the Hood family. In the 1830s a Mr Robert Jacomb inherited Bardon Park (which included Bardon Hill and Bardon Hall) from William Hood who was a relative of his father's first wife. Robert took the hyphenated name Jacomb-Hood.
In the 1690s the owner of Bardon Hill and Bardon Park, John Hood, built a Christian meeting house at the gate of the Bardon estate. This is said to be the oldest Non-conformist place of worship in Leicestershire, and indeed over a wide area of the East Midlands.
The date "1877" is carved in the stonework above the door of the meetinghouse or chapel, this being the date the building was re-modelled. The basic structure of the building is regarded as dating from the 1690s.
The building was originally known as "Bardon Meetinghouse" or "Bardon Park Meetinghouse" and the congregation worshipping there would have been referred to as "Bardon Meeting". Today, the building is called Bardon Park Chapel.
During the 19th century a village of quarry workers' cottages was built southwest of Bardon Hill. Bardon village had the postal address "Bardon Hill". The cottages were very close to the quarry, and they were demolished in about 1988.
The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter was built in 1899. It is beside the main A511 road, a short distance east of the Birch Tree public house. It had its own vicar, but is now part of an united benefice with Christ Church, Coalville and St. Michael and All Angels, Ravenstone.
There have been three school buildings at Bardon.
In the 19th century, before the Elementary Education Act 1870, there was a Non-conformist "British School" day-school in the schoolroom behind Bardon Park Chapel. This was in addition to the Sunday school which operated from 1820 onwards.
Later, a day-school was built in the row of quarryworkers' cottages near the quarry. This school subsequently moved to a new building nearby. The schoolhouse in the row of quarryworkers' cottages no longer exists. It was demolished along with the cottages. The building still stands and is used as offices and laboratory for Aggregate Industries.
An unlikely local legend suggests that Bardon Hill is actually the Mount Badon of King Arthur fame. It is known that the Britons severely defeated an invading Anglo-Saxon army at the Battle of Mons Badonicus some time around the year 500. It was a major military and political event of the 5th or 6th century in Britain, but there is no certainty about its date or place.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People names Ambrosius Aurelius, a Roman, as the man who led the Britons to victory at the battle, but by the 9th century the victory was attributed to King Arthur.
Local stories claim that Arthur watched the approach of the Saxons from the summit of the hill and that his forces then swept down the hill and massacred them. A nearby field name is still called Battle Flat, and the legend also claims that the dead were buried at nearby Billabarrow hill.
