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LEI Country

Bagworth Woodlands including Royal Tigers and Centenary Woods

Location Plans

  • North car park - 'Miners Welfare' - SK446081 - view in Multimap or Streetmap format.

  • South car park - Near Brick Works - SK458068 - view in Multimap or Streetmap format.



Bagworth Heath

The 75-hectare site is on the location of the former Desford Colliery and is owned and managed by the County Council. There is a range of walks and fine views to Thornton and Bagworth and for our purposes is mapped with Royal Tigers & Centenary Woods owned by the Woodland Trust


The site is linked to Thornton and Bagworth by the circular walk around Leicestershire, the 100-mile Leicestershire Round and Sustrans cycle routes cross the site. It has been mapped and used for orienteering for a number of years and is maturing into a good area, with mixed terrain and vegetation and including lakes and several hills.


There are a number of nearby small National Forest Schemes which can be linked in by way of the footpath network.

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Royal Tigers and Centenary Wood

This is a Woodland Trust managed site consisting of 14 ha of woodland which was planted in 1993/4 through funds raised by the now-disbanded Royal Leicestershire Regiment. An arboretum containing 17 species of trees from countries in which the Regiment served (as the 17th Foot) lies at the bottom of the slope by the hedgerow.


A locally quarried memorial stone bears a regimental plaque. It is flanked by two Mercer's Oaks, brought to the UK from the tree in Princeton (USA) around which the surrounded 17th Foot routed part of Washington's army and bayoneted its commander (Mercer) during the American War of Independence in 1777. This adjoins Centenary Wood also owned by the Trust (27 ha) planted to commemorate the centenary of Bagworth Parish Council in 1994. Native broadleaved trees and shrubs have been planted on former farmland with wide rides and glades to create edge habitats and open spaces. At the northern end of the site, a public footpath takes you the short distance to Bagworth Church, a new church built on the site of the Norman church lost to mining subsidence. The arch from the Norman church has been built into the new church. Both Royal Tigers and Centenary Woods slope steeply uphill and are just across the road from the car park for Bagworth Heath Woods and all are mapped together for our purposes.


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