A Good Walk (not) Spoiled

I've not swung a gold club in earnest for quite a long while, and it is even longer since I managed an after-work Friday afternoon round at what was the nearest municipal course to where I work - Western Park Golf Course. Even if I wanted to, there is no chance of playing there these days; it was closed to the public and abandoned as a course by Leicester City Council in (I believe) 2015. The Council could no longer afford or justify having two large municipal courses and closed Western Park GC whilst leaving Humberstone Heights GC open and better funded - the course where I first played in any way as it is just up the road from where I grew up.

Anyway, what I had become completely oblivious to is that at some point the site has essentially been opened up and is accessible. Not sure if that has been deliberate and formal, or just a by product of such a large green space being close to housing estates. I hadn't though about it at all until I noticed that both the tetrad where I work and the adjacent tetrad where the course is are lacking in leaf mine records. So I nipped to have a quick look after work in the week - no intention of recording there and then but just to sense check access and have a quick nosey.

The course is readily accessible from a strip of land known as the Kirby Frith Local Nature Reserve - itself a decent bit of habitat that I'd not bothered to look at before. There is a saying that 'Golf is a good walk spoiled'; an abandoned golf course is the very antithesis of this with a great mosaic of grassland and diverse woodland planting and spinneys. The club house and buildings have long gone, but the car parking area and the foundations are still there rewilding naturally. Have to say it all looked very promising and I will go back very soon to do some recording. Trees include plenty of oaks, poplars, White Poplar, Silver Birch, Hornbeam and Rowan. Long term though I fully expect - sadly - that this area will be turned over to expanding the large industrial estate and/or housing.

Watch/listen to 3:53 in for even more relevance ....