Kingsmead Road off the main Welford Road
Lying two miles to the south of the centre of Leicester this beautiful 78 acre park offers colourful shrub borders, water garden, heather woodlands, two well-equipped play areas and a rock garden. It has become one of the city’s most popular amenities.
Knighton village appears in the Domesday Book under its Scandinavian name of Cnihetone.
In the 1720’s, Edmund Cradock, a woollen draper of Leicester bought Knighton Hall and its associated farmland. In the years that followed, the family acquired almost all the land in the parish. Knighton Hall is now the official residence of the Vice Chancellor of Leicester University and the name of the Cradock’s is preserved in the partially thatched Cradock pub.
The City Council bought land from the Cradock-Hartopp trustees just before the Second World War with the intention of establishing a park but work was not begun until 1953.
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The Wash (or Saffron) brook flows through the park and is bordered by trees and herbs in the northern area. Many formerly common birds such as the song thrush are becoming scarce in the countryside and large mature parks are important refuges for them.
Squire Cradock-Hartopp planted oak trees to form the enclosed Spinney in 1840 to help provide oak wood for future shipbuilding. To make the oaks grow tall and straight, ash were planted in between them. Later Cradocks decided to keep the woodland as a fox covert and in 1932 a covenant was published declaring that the spinney should be a nature reserve for all time. The spinney is fenced off from the rest of the park and is open to the public for guided walks by arrangement with Groundwork Leicester and Leicestershire (formerly Environ). Read more about Knighton Spinney Local Nature Reserve.
The Heath Garden near the Woodbank Road entrance has rockeries and ponds and is designed for the visitor to be surprised by beds planted with heathers, annual and water plants. It attracts a large number of frogs and other water creatures.
There are various avenues in the park, including the laburnum avenue close to the Spinney and the gingko (maidenhair) avenue in the Heath Garden. A charming path bordered by magnolias runs across the middle of the park.
In addition to the Spinney there are blocks of newly planted woodland consisting of a lime wood, a beech wood and a willow wood.
An attractive and much-valued feature of this park is that it has a circular path, enabling visitors to see all these features without getting too muddy. Many of the paths are edged with beds planted up with spring and summer bedding flowers.
The park has two play areas suitable for all age groups including teenagers and is included in the Passport to Parks scheme - can you find the plaque?
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Knighton Park offers a 9 hole pitch and putt course. All equipment can be hired from the Sport On Parks member of staff and opening hours are every day during the school summer holidays, weather permitting.
Other facilities include:
- 2 Football pitches
- Changing facilities
- 2 Hard surface tennis courts
- 3 Orienteering courses *
* For further orienteering details please telephone 0116 229 3638.
There are a number of other sporting facilities available on the adjacent Welford Road side of the park also including:
- 4 Football pitches
- Cricket
- Rounders
- Grass athletics track
Read here for more information about Sport On Parks facilities
For further details please contact Sport On Parks 0116 233 3028.
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Knighton Park User Group meets regularly to discuss issues relating to the park. Everyone is welcome. Contact the park for more details on 0116 252 7003.
Car Parking is available at the Palmerston Way entrance. There are tarmac paths throughout the park.
For Blue Badge holders parking is available at the Shanklin Drive entrance.
For more information contact: Parks Services
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