What Will Be Lost
Please help us protest now before this area is destroyed.
If you are unfamiliar with the area threatened with development this section provides some details about why we feel that it is precious and should be protected.
This is very much in addition to all of the reasons why the area has already been identified as unsuitable for development - including being on a River Trent floodplain, the lack of transport infrastructure etc.
Wildlife
The area around Bassingfield threatened with development is home to diverse flora and fauna. Meadow land and hedgerow would be lost forever were this area to be developed and these are valuable wildlife habitats.
The area is also used by Barn Owls. These Owls enjoy protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 because there are so few wild pairs left.
Pipistrelle bats also use the area to hunt and roost. All bats are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Agricultural Land
Much of the area being considered is working agricultural land with land owners husbanding sheep and cattle as well
as producing agricultural crops.
Bassingfield is home to a livery stables which means vital meadow land is also preserved. The area is used regularly by horse riders.
'Food security' and 'food miles' (carbon footprint) are now being discussed in the media. Any attempt at making us more responsible and aware in these regards are surely undermined by the loss of agricultural land to property developers.
In the East Midlands we have many hundreds of hectares of brownfield sites and an estimated 60,000 empty houses - but the City Council are proposing a property development on the greenbelt.
You can view the government Foresight Group website for more details about these issues.
Bassingfield Hamlet
Bassingfield has evidence of human occupation in the area dating back 3,000 years. Aerial surveys of the area have identified that the land was
used in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.
Part of Bassingfield was owned by William Peveril following the Norman conquest and was listed in the Domesday Book as Basingfeld. The Luterells, Lords of the Manor of West Bridgford, included Bassingfield in their estate in the Middle Ages. The area was eventually sold to Sir Henry Pierrepont and later became part of the estate of Robert Earl of Kingston.
Jeese Boot had connections with the area and visited his grandparents (William and Elizabeth Boot) who lived in the hamlet.
Bassingfield is unique in the local area because it is a hamlet and has no boundary, like a village would have, the Greenbelt actually runs right through it. The threatened development will destroy most of the hamlet and irrevocably change the character of what is not destroyed.
Bassingfield includes meadows, rare survivors in the agricultural landscape, and significant headgerows. It is home to a livery stables, a woodyard and many residential houses.
Grantham Canal Section
The Grantham Canal runs along the southern edge of the area threatened with development. As such this section of the canal will have it's character
irrevocably changed.
The Grantham Canal was opened in 1797 and for well over a century was one of the principal waterways of the Midlands, offering a reliable and cost-effective alternative to the toll-roads for the transport of goods and materials between Grantham and Nottingham.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the growth of the railways led to an inevitable decline in the use of water-borne transport but the Grantham Canal fared better than most, and it was not until the age of the petrol engine that closure finally came in the 1930s.
Today this part of the canal is enjoyed by walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Expanding urban development will inevitably undo the conservation work that has been undertaken and will forever change the character of a walk along this section of the canal.
Find out more about the Grantham Canal and the Grantham Canal Society.