Rothwell Country Park

Rothwell Country Park is a park, which is situated on the site of the Rothwell Colliery (Fanny Pit) and was redeveloped in the mid 1990s. The park opened on 24th of June 2000 and is managed by Leeds City Council, in partnership with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and the Friends of Rothwell Country Park.

=History=

Roman Britain
In 1977, a well dated to Roman Britain was discovered on land near Fanny Pit, with 4th century pottery, wooden tools such as spades and bowls and animal bones being found. A human skull was also found but this was thought by archeologist to be from a burial site unrelated to the Roman Period.

Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, Rothwell Country Park would have been part of a large wooded area that nobility used for hunting, such as wild boars. Nobles such as John of Gaunt would have hunted regularly in this area.

In 1530, the Royal Hunting Park of Rothwell was de-parked and hunting would have subsided, while cattle grazing and eventually coal mining would have increased.

19th Century
Around 1867, the Charlesworth family sank a shaft on the site, named Fanny Pit, after the daughter of one of the Charlesworths. Despite millions of gallons of water needing to be pumped out of the shaft every week, the shaft was highly profitably.

20th Century
Subsequently, in 1921, a second shaft was sunk and, which was deepened in 1924/25. In 1922, 160 ponies were kept in underground stables at Fanny Pit.

In 1947, the pit was nationalised and it began to focus on producing coal quickly for the power stations. This led to the introduction of an underground locomotive system.

On the 9th December 1983, the last of the Rothwell Colliery's shafts were closed. They had produced over 75 million tons of coal during the time they were open.

In the mid 1990s, local people, Leeds City Council and Groundwork Leeds, entered a partnership to transform the disused industrial site. Over the next five years, the site had woodland, wetland and meadow planted.

21st Century
On the 24th June 2000, Rothwell Country Park was opened by Richard Whiteley.

In 2010, after years of underinvestment and vandalism, the Friends of Rothwell Country Park was opened to maintain the park.

In 2019, the park was designated a Local Wildlife Site.

Rothwell Country Park is one of the 13 Wildlife Trust sites within 500m of the proposed HS2 train line. The Wildlife Trust's report highlights out how the new proposed HS2 line will be go further south into the site, where the highest level of biodiversity is, and that construction will cause damage and possibly introduce invasive species that had been eradicted from the site back into Rothwell Country Park from its boundaries.

=References= =Your Memories=