Ancient Abbey Walk

Difficulty Easy Access

Walking time 58 minutes

Length 3.2km / 2.0mi

Route developer: rachel jenkins

Route checker: John Alton

Start location St Margarets Pastures Sports Centre

Route Summary A 2 mile stroll through picturesque Abbey Park taking in the formal gardens and fountain and the historic ruins of the ancient abbey.

*move mouse over graph to see points on route

Getting there

From Leicester City Centre

Buses 5, 5a and 6 all stop at Belgrave Gate a 2 minute walk away from the park. See the Arriva website for more details: http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/

You can also walk from Leicester City Centre to Abbey park in around 15 minutes. There is a useful map on Leicester Council website: http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/lc/parks-green-spaces/main-parks/abbey-park/how-to-get-there/

Description

[1] Starting with your back to the sports centre turn right towards the car park and enter Abbey Park (A) by Gate D. Continue straight ahead along the path passing the Miniature Railway (B) on your left.

(A) Abbey Park is Leicester’s premier park. The River Soar divides this beautiful park into two distinct areas: to the east of the river lies the highly decorative Victorian part of the park with its evergreen shrubberies, trees, lakes and formally planted flower displays and to the west of the river lies the fascinating Abbey Grounds. Within this area are the remains of the twelfth century Leicester Abbey and the ruins of Cavendish House, a seventeenth century mansion.

(B) The Leicester Society of Model Engineers was founded in 1909. In 1949, the Parks Committee gave the Leicester Society of Model Engineers permission to install a miniature railway for model engines on Abbey Park. The railway is open to the public most Sundays throughout the summer.

Where the path splits into two take the left hand path passing the flower gardens on your right. If you have time you can stop to admire the colourful floral displays. Follow the path around the flower gardens and then to the right as it slopes uphill towards the Events Centre.

[2] Shortly after you reach the top of the slope you will see a small gate which is the entrance into the Friendship Gardens (C) on your left. Enter the Friendship Gardens and cross the first bridge and then a second bridge towards the miniature pagoda.

Take care on the bridges as they can be very slippery in damp conditions. The area can be avoided by carrying on around the outside of the Gardens by the left hand side of the Education Centre

(C) Officially opened in 1989, many of the plants in this area are of Chinese origin and the paintings on the ceiling of the ‘Pagoda’ were actually painted in Taiwan.

Exit the Friendship Gardens by the gate behind the pagoda and turn right to join the main path around the lake. Take care around the unfenced water, particular with young children.

Follow this path with the lake on your left, passing the car park and then the main gate on your right. Pass by the parks office and entrance to the bowling green and then turn right just after the tree carving, Walk towards the River Soar (D) and follow the path to the left along the river bank until you reach the stone bridge.

(D) The River Soar is a tributary of the River Trent in the English East Midlands. It rises near Hinckley flowing into the Trent near Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire. According to legend, the body of King Richard III of England was thrown into the Soar after his death. The bridge carrying the A47 across the Soar at Leicester is known as 'King Richard's Bridge'. It is believed the name "Leicester" is derived from the words castra (camp) of the Ligore, meaning dwellers on the 'River Legro' (an early name for the River Soar). In the early 10th century it was recorded as Ligeraceaster ("the town of the Ligor people"). The Domesday Book later recorded it as Ledecestre.

[3] Cross the stone bridge. With the cafe in front of you walk a few steps to your right where you will notice some iron railings. Directly behind the railings go through the door in the stone wall. You will emerge in front of the ruins of the Abbey (E). See Additional Points of Interest below for more information.

Take care when passing through the stone wall as there is restricted headroom.

Follow the path forwards around the outside of the Abbey and bear left at the top

[4] When the path reaches a t-junction under the cover of trees with the car park on the right turn left. You will see the standing ruins of Cavendish House (F) to your right. See additional point of interest information below.

You will emerge from the woods onto a large field, follow the path round to the right and continue past the tennis courts and seating areas. Just after you pass the children's playground at the bottom of the field exit the field via the gate; this takes you onto the river bank.

[5] Turn right along the river bank and continue with the river on your left until you come to a bridge. Cross the bridge and at the end of the bridge turn left along the path with the river on your left for a few meters. Follow the path to the right with the sports centre on your right until you come to the point where you started. This is the end of the walk.

POI information

Leicester Abbey (E)

Leicester Abbey, the Abbey of Saint Mary de Pratis ("St Mary of the Meadows") was founded c. 1140 under the patronage of Robert le Bossu, Earl of Leicester. It was founded as a community of Augustinian Canons, the canons regular of the Order of Saint Augustine. Canons regular follow a similar, but perhaps less rigid rule than monks, following a rule set down by Saint Augustine in a letter to a convent in his diocese. The abbey was one of the largest and most influential land owners in Leicestershire. The abbey certainly held more manors than any lay lord.

The abbey is perhaps most famous for its connection to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England, who was for a time the most powerful man in England, second only to the King. In spiritual terms, his power even surpassed that of the Archbishop of Canterbury (the Primate of All England). Wolsey, at one part, was a candidate for the papacy on the death of Leo X, when Adrian VI was elected. Wolsey fell out of the King’s favour in 1529 and went north to visit his Archdiocese of York. A year later he was accused of high treason and ordered to return to London. On the way, he stopped at Leicester Abbey. As he arrived, he told the abbot, "I am come to leave my bones among you.” Wolsey died at the abbey on 29 November 1530 and was buried within the walls of the Abbey church, where today a monument stands on his supposed resting place. From the disgrace of Wolsey, the path to schism from Rome was short, and the inevitable fall of the Abbey of St Mary de Pratis of Leicester. The clothes manufacturers Wolsey is based nearby in Leicester and the company is named in honour of Cardinal Wolsey.

The canons supported the Oath of Supremacy of the King, and the abbey would have become the cathedral of Leicester. However, it had problems of its own, far from the reaches of spiritual politics. The Abbey was in debt. The canons owed £411 10 s 0 d (£411.50). The last abbot, John Bourchen, surrendered the abbey to Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey’s old secretary. He set up what was believed to be a scheme to save the Abbey (despite his firm belief in the dissolution of the monasteries)—the sale of the abbey’s land and possessions. The scheme (unsurprisingly) failed. The canons disbanded, and the land was granted to the Marquess of Northampton, who later sold it to the Earl of Huntingdon, who built a house in the grounds of the abbey, using the Abbey's stone. The Abbey's main gatehouse, which gave access to the cloister that flanked the abbey church, some boundary walls and later farm buildings have survived.

Cavendish House (F)

In 1613, William Cavendish, the first Earl of Devonshire, acquired the Abbey, and it became known as Cavendish House. It was used as the headquarters of Charles I after his forces occupied the town in late May 1645, shortly before the Battle of Naseby. The house was burnt down following the royalist defeat at Naseby (though it is unclear who set fire to it) and never re-built.

In 1931 the precinct of the abbey was incorporated into the Victorian park called Abbey Park, which had previously been confined to the area between the river and the canal. All of the former mediaeval abbey precinct is now a Scheduled monument. The scheduled area includes not only the footprint of the abbey church and the main abbey buildings (The outline of which was set out in stone once it had been identified in the 1920s) the older parts of the precinct wall which are in stone and line the northern, north-eastern and north-western sides of the precinct, and the brick part the precinct wall, known as Abbot Penny's Wall (which was erected around a southern extension to the precinct c.1500) and the remains of Cavendish House.

Notes No details available.

Acknowledgements No details available.