Old Rise Rocks
Now tarmac
Now tarmac
Also known as Rice Rocks
Old Rise Rocks used to give a water-level traverse and were referenced as a place to visit for its natural beauty in the classic books on Charnwood by T. R. Potter (1842), F. T. Mott (1868) and J. Spanton (1868).
The Old Rise Rocks have sadly been quarried away as part of the Bardon Hill Quarry Extension. Some of the rocks have supposedly been relocated to another site, more to preserve the lichen growing on them than the rocks themselves.
The Old Rise Rocks have sadly been quarried away as part of the Bardon Hill Quarry Extension. Some of the rocks have supposedly been relocated to another site, more to preserve the lichen growing on them than the rocks themselves.
The only outcrop of merit rises out of a pond near the farm. An interesting traverse can be made across it, the prospect of a wetting does much to increase the effective exposure.
- Rock Climbs in Leicestershire (1966)
I planned to take a footpath to Copt Oak that I have used many times before- through green rolling fields past Old Rise rocks. However I was in for a shock- the hill where a delightful path climbed through the fields to a farm and the Rocks has been turned into a quarry- fields, paths, trees, farm, all gone… replaced with brown dust, noise and vehicles ceaselessly driving to and fro. As I approached, I watched two buzzards wheeling above me, listening to their cries as though they were venting their indignation about this total destruction of their habitat.
Where Nature rule supreme Progress has stepped in and altered the very face of the country, digging pits here, blasting hills there, yea, verily Charnwood has been in the forefront of Progress. Without a doubt is has progressed: but has it been all in the right direction? I sometimes wonder.
Yet while all this cultivation of waste in Charnwood has been progressing, at the other end of the country from Melton to Oakham good cow pastures have been utterly devastated, in order to extract ironstone to make armaments to blast human beings. If Progress has its way, one-eighth of the county will be left so ravaged that only the hope remains that fir trees may grow on it. After a lapse of a few hundred years will Progress recultivated this tract and waste Charnwood? I wonder. Progress has not invented the atomic bomb, to alter the face of the country more speedily than the largest steam excavator and obliterate the progress not only of a million years but even man himself. Does the ape in the primeval forest have a good laugh at homo sapiens? I wonder about this too, but I don't suppose it matters, as long as we are sure we are progressing.
- A Triumph of Progress, Anon. in Leicestershire, G. Paget amd L. Irvine (1950)
The way to love anything is to realise that it might be lost.
- The Advantages of Having One Leg, G. K. Chesterton (1909)
