Bradgate Park: Government announces new national nature reserve - home to incredible fossils and rare spiders

A popular Leicestershire park will become England’s newest nature reserve, protecting some of the world’s rarest fossils - as well as ancient oaks, rare spiders, and kingfishers.

This week, Natural England declared that Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood, just northwest of Leicester, will become the country’s 220th National Nature Reserve. The new, 439-hectare addition will mean nature reserves and parks now cover more than 109,000 hectares of land - about 0.8% of England.

Bradgate Park holds is home to rare fossils from the Precambrian Period more than half a billion years ago, showing evidence of early marine lifeforms - the only National Nature Reserve where you can find fossils of this age. These fossils, known as the Ediacaran biota, are among the first evidence of complex life on Earth. They helped revolutionise our understanding of how life evolved, and were the ‘missing link’ in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution - which posited that the Precambrian seas must have hosted life.

The new national nature reserve was also the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, England’s ‘nine day Queen’, and was visited by Sir David Attenborough in his youth. Natural England said in a statement that the area is steeped in history, where fallow and red deer can be found grazing alongside 800-year-old oaks, and some of Leicestershire’s last grassland habitats.

Swithland Wood is also an important ancient woodland habitat home to all kinds of wildlife, including green and great spotted woodpeckers, the rare ‘Cgarnwood spider’, and the small heath butterfly. The UK’s nature minister, Rebecca Pow, said the two sites were a “prime example” of just how much nature had to offer in England.

“The site is home to thriving wildlife and ancient woodland, offering people around Leicester an opportunity to engage with the natural environment, and it is also right at the centre of our understanding of our geological history, with some of the rarest fossils in the world,” she said.

“National Nature Reserves play a key role in protecting sites like this, which help to bring people closer to nature, as well as helping us to understand more about the natural world, “ Pow continued. The new reserve announcement marked another step towards the government’s goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by creating bigger and better spaces for nature, she added.

Bradgate Park Trust director James Dymond said this was a landmark moment for Bradgate Park and Swithland Wood. “To have the site’s conservation value recognised in this way is a fantastic achievement,” he said.

“For Bradgate to be part of His Majesty The King’s series of National Nature Reserves is a real honour and I’m extremely grateful to the teams of professionals, specialists and volunteers who have worked together to make this achievement possible.”

Amber Allott is NationalWorld’s environment and sustainability specialist, covering all things green - from climate to conservation. If you liked this article you can follow Amber on X (Twitter) here and sign up for the free daily NationalWorld Today newsletter here - with Amber bringing you the UK's most important, pressing, weird and wonderful environmental stories every Tuesday.