216 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TKEES 



conditions to the adjoining catchment areas of the Leicester 

 Corporation. 



Leicester obtains its water supply in part from three 

 gathering grounds, each with a storage reservoir, in the 

 Charnwood Forest district: (1) Thornton, 2860 acres; 

 (2) Bradgate Park, 4400 acres; and (3) Swithland, 3500 

 acres; in all, 10,760 acres, over red marl and clay. The 

 average elevation is 400 feet, the highest point in the 

 district being Bardon Hill, 902 feet above sea-level. The 

 land consists of small woods, poor pasture, arable land, and 

 rocks ; and the Council only own the sites of the reservoirs 

 and a small margin around them. About two hundred 

 years ago, the timber in this district, mostly oak, was all 

 cleared, and the land remained bare till the Enclosure of 

 1812, when the high price of corn encouraged tillage. 

 Numerous small woods, mostly oak and larch, were planted 

 later. The rocks are Cambrian syenite, slate and trap, very 

 hard but overlaid in the valleys with boulder clay and other 

 glacial detritus. Mr. L. Fosbrooke of Eavenstone Hall, 

 Leicester, who is well acquainted with the neighbourhood, 

 is of opinion that these gathering grounds would be suitable 

 for the creation of a coniferous forest, exceeding 10,000 

 acres in extent. Such a forest would prove remunerative 

 within a short term of years on account of the demand for 

 pitwood by the collieries on the western boundary of the 

 district. Sir J. Eolleston, liowever, at the Board of Agri- 

 culture Conference on Afforestation, in 1907, gave his 

 opinion as follows : " Those Corporations like Liverpool, 

 which have bought their watersheds and have large tracts 

 of land of no value for pasture or agriculture, can produce 

 these schemes ; but other towns which have not the land 

 would not be able to do so. For instance, a town like 

 Leicester, situated in the midst of the best grazing districts 

 of the country, would hardly be likely to find lands suitable 

 for any extensive scheme of afforestation." 



Melton Mowbray Urban District Council obtains its water 

 supply from a gathering ground of 300 acres at Scalford, 



