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FORESTS AND WOODS

THE OUTWOODS:
These woods are found on Woodhouse Lane, Loughborough and are composed of about 100 acres of oaks and conifers. They are on a ridge of high ground overlooking Loughborough and the Soar Valley and have many walks and footpaths. This area is a great favourite with horse riders and there is a bridle way from the woods into Loughborough. THE OUTWOODS have also become a popular venue for outdoor weddings!

HISTORY:
It is difficult to give a history of any wood, mainly due to the scarcity of written evidence. But we do know that the OUTWOODS were originally part of the medieval LOUGHBOROUGH DEER PARK. This was one of the largest Deer Parks in CHARNWOOD and began in 1229 when HUGH LE DESPENSER was given deer to stock a park of 146 acres.

In the next four centuries, the park expanded into the area between Forest Lane, the OUTWOODS and BEAUMANOR PARK. It was then owned by the GREY family, before their fall from favour in the 1550s saw it passing to the HASTINGS family. It contained rabbits in 1557 and deer until at least 1577 but a document of 1614 calls it " the late parke at Loughborough", clearly showing that it no longer operated as a park at that date. The land had been turned over to agriculture with the exception of the OUTWOODS, which continued as a deer park for some time.

The park had to be sold off at the end of the Civil War to meet the huge fines levied on the family by the new Republic. It is unknown when THE OUTWOODS themselves ceased to operate as a deer park but they passed out of the HASTINGS family in 1730. THE OUTWOODS is now a unique link with the past in that it is all that survives of LOUGHBOROUGH PARK.