There are rules about dogs, picking mushrooms and various other things
One of the rules is not to take any stone, rock or bricks from the park(Image: Tom Mack/Leicester Mercury)
A long list of byelaws are in force at a popular Leicestershire country park. The rules are put together by the Bradgate Park Trust and they are enforced by the staff working in the park, as well as Leicestershire Police.
According to the park’s website, the rules are all “designed to ensure protection of the estate for future generations and the heritage in the trust’s custodianship”.
They include obvious ones, such as not pitching tents, defacing buildings or grazing your flock of sheep in the park. But there are also byelaws against climbing trees or taking any souvenirs from the park, including moss and even water from the stream.
And one byelaw states that if you’re playing a musical instrument on the park and somebody else asks you to be quiet, you have to stop.
Anyone convicted of a breach of the byelaws can expect a fine of up to £200. While, of course, anyone breaking the law more generally, can expect to get the usual sentence from the criminal courts.
Here’s the list of byelaws in full:
- No one can enter or leave the park without using one of the designated spots – you can’t just jump in over a wall
- No one without authority is allowed to climb the trees, climb over any fences or scale any of the buildings in the park – and that includes clambering over shut gates
- No using the wrong toilets – it’s a byelaw that women can’t enter men’s loos and vice versa
- No one without authority is allowed to dig up anything or take rocks, gravel, plants, moss or flowers – that rule also includes causing damage to the plants and fungi.
- No fires or barbecues are to be lit – and there’s no dropping lit matches, either
- No firearms or fireworks and no “discharge [of] any missile to the danger of any person, animal or bird” in the park
- No dropping stuff, including litter, wood, stone, sand or dung in the ponds and streams
- No defacing or damaging the man-made structures, including seats, gates, walls and buildings
- No putting up signs or advertisements of any kind without authority
- No catching, snaring, trapping or disturbing the park’s wildlife, which includes a ban on taking eggs or encouraging dogs to fight each other
- No feeding the deer or even trying to do so – the rule states “no unauthorised person shall feed any deer nor induce or attempt to induce any deer to consume any article”
It’s against the byelaw to feed the deer, or even try to feed them(Image: Tom Mack/Leicester Mercury)
- No dogs are allowed in the park that are not “under proper control” – there are also restrictions about dogs being on leads for certain busier parts of the park
- No bathing or swimming in the water – which includes swimming in Cropston Reservoir from the park’s shore
Swimming and bathing is not allowed in streams, ponds or Cropston Reservoir(Image: Tom Mack/Leicester Mercury)
- No breaking the rules about where horses are allowed – anyone authorised to take a horse to the park has to stick to the tracks
- No bikes are allowed to go off-road and people authorised to use powered vehicles in the park have to stick to the roads
- Riders on horseback cannot go at speed – they have to stick to a trot or a canter
- No parking vehicles in the park, except in the car parks and other authorised parking areas
- No vehicles anywhere in the park after dusk
- No vehicles given permission to be in the park can go in areas where they have not been specifically authorised to go
- Visitors have to adhere to signposts that “set apart any parts of the park for a specific purpose”
- No tents or other structures are allowed without authorisation
- No water to be taken from ponds or streams – except if its being used to fight a fire
- No unauthorised shows, exhibitions, children’s rides or similar things
- No use of the park for business or trade, including photography for commercial purposes
- No selling goods or offering them for sale in the park
- No organised games in the car parks and no games in the park that “cause annoyance to others”
- No unauthorised meetings or assemblies
- No breaking a horse on the park, which means training a horse to take a rider for the first time
- No cattle, sheep or any other livestock allowed on the park
- No “indecent or obscene language to the annoyance of any person” or any “indecent or offensive” behaviour
- Anyone playing musical instruments or recordings or any kind must stop “after being requested to desist” by anyone else who is disturbed by the sound
- No bringing into the park any plants or animals that would be “likely to reproduce or propagate itself or cause damage to the park or plant or animal life therein”
- No one can “wilfully obstruct, disturb, hinder, interrupt or annoy any other person in the proper use and enjoyment of the park”
Three additional byelaws also exist to give the park staff powers to stop people breaking the byelaws.
They state that anyone who breaks the byelaws can be fined up to £200 if convicted and that park rangers enforcing the byelaws do not breach other people’s human rights if they are dealing with someone who is acting illegally.
And finally, the park has the right to remove vehicles, structures and animals that are breaching the byelaws and “also, after due warning, may remove any person who, in his view, commits any offence against these byelaws”.