Hicks Lodge Cafe

About

Hicks Lodge is a fantastic day out for the whole family - from budding cyclists to the more confident. Set in beautiful young woodland at the heart of The National Forest, it has been designed with the whole family in mind.

Story

Hicks Lodge is a fantastic day out for the whole family - from budding cyclists to the more confident. Set in beautiful young woodland at the heart of The National Forest, it has been designed with the whole family in mind with a variety of trails to explore.

The trails are graded according to their difficulty - so you can choose flat and easy paths or the more difficult twists and turns of the singletrack trails.

The Hicks Lodge Trail, a flat and wide 2km path around the lake, is great for walkers, cyclists and even horses.

The Family Forest Trail (2km short loop and 4.5km long loop) takes you on an exploration across the whole site, there are some hilly bits but it’s still suitable for bikes, trikes, tagalongs, wheelchairs and pushchairs.

The Wood Farm Trail (2.5km) introduces cyclists to easy singletrack and the Shell Brook Trail (7km) brings on more technical features on a moderate graded singletrack which is suitable only for mountain bikes.

If you’re making a day of it you can stop halfway round the Family Forest Trail at the fantastic viewpoint for a picnic.

Warm up afterwards in the stunning eco-friendly visitor centre with café, bike hire and repair shop, showers and a wood-burning stove for chilly days.

Download the cycle centre leaflet in the links to the right for more information including a map of how to get here.

Although designed for families, watch some top cyclists in action at Hicks Lodge in the 2012 Midlands XC Series which took place on 19th February 2012. http://vimeo.com/37253636



The trails are free to use. There is a small car parking charge: £1 per hour up to a maximum of £3 for the day.

The centre has been developed through a partnership of the Forestry Commission and the National Forest Company, and is particularly suitable for families and novice cyclists.
The area of Hicks Lodge was part of the larger site known by the coal industry locally as the Moira Crossroads site, bounded by Ashby Road (Donisthorpe) to the South, Moira Road/Measham Road to the West, Ashby Road (Moira) to the North, and Willesley Lane to the East.
During the 1930’s there was a driveway in approximately the same place as today’s cycle centre entrance. This bore slightly to the left for about 100yds, and led to Lodge Farm, which was owned by a Mr Hicks, which over time became known locally as “Hick’s Lodge Farm”.
In the late 1930’s there was a pine wood some 200 yds deep, separating Bramborough Farm, (accessed from Measham Road), Hicks Lodge Farm, and Newfields Colliery which is the mature woodland at the far right looking from the café. During the early 1940’s this wood was clear felled as part of the war effort, although significant deciduous woodland around to the left of Hicks Lodge Farm remained largely untouched. Apart from Fox Covert, this was all cleared during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by the Willesley Clay Company, who worked the site for clay, to be used in the manufacture of salt glazed pipes and chimney pots at the potteries of Stoke on Trent . The Hicks Lodge Farm buildings were used as the site offices.
During the 1960’s and 70’s more clay and coal extraction took place, and the woodland on the opposite side of Willesley Lane was, sadly, lost. This was ancient woodland, and it is said that many people used to visit Moira to hear the song of the nightingales.
This has now been reinstated, and those trees were amongst the first to be planted in the early 1990’s, at the inaugural site of then newly created National Forest.
During all of the foregoing mineral extraction there were very few conditions laid down regarding reinstatement of the land, and during the 1980’s all there was to see of Hicks Lodge was a derelict depression, with what soil and rubble that remained being pushed to the boundaries. In 1987, plans were unveiled by A F Budge for further large scale extraction of coal and clay, and backfilling with three million tons of waste. There was a great deal of local opposition and these plans were defeated, although a later application purely for the mineral extraction was passed. However, by that time there was a new, more environmental awareness in the country, and all mineral extraction had to be reinstated in very specific ways.
Hicks Lodge was worked in the light of new planning conditions, by UK Coal, and what we see now was largely a result of that restoration. Woodland planting has since been undertaken by the National Forest and The Forestry Commission, although a large part of the site is now in private ownership. Local comment is that it is now as good as it was before the first mineral extraction, and each year as the site matures, it gets better.
Through the creation of the National Forest Cycle Centre we have now moved to a new era, and we have visitors from far and wide, engaged in a whole variety of activities including bird watching and butterfly conservation. You may also hear the Sled Dogs training here. Hicks Lodge now boasts a wide range of facilities, including waymarked walking and cycling trails, a cycle hire centre, play area and café selling lunches, homemade cakes as well as coffee/teas where you will always have a friendly welcome.
Hicks Lodge is well and truly on the map, and for those who were involved in the struggle to protect it, it has been well worth the effort!
Thanks go to Angela Chamberlin and others who have championed and supported the site.

Caroline Hart