History & Heritage
The woodland around Fire & Stars may look timeless, but much of the National Forest is surprisingly young. Nearby are medieval battlefields, ruined castles, canals built for industry, an early blast furnace and former mining land now growing green again.
The woodland you’re camping in is part of the story
Nethercote Wood was planted in 2005 as part of The National Forest. It is not a remnant of one vast ancient forest, but part of a modern project to repair, reconnect and reimagine a changing Midlands landscape.
In 1991, the 200-square-mile Forest boundary was agreed and the first trees were planted. Today, woodland cover has risen from 6% to more than 25%, with over 9.5 million trees planted. Guests at Fire & Stars are camping in one of the landscapes created by that transformation.
From castle towers to young woodland
Scroll across the timeline, or follow it down the page on mobile.
Farms and villages
A worked countryside surrounds the settlements that become Ashby and Bosworth.
Ashby Castle rises
William, Lord Hastings begins turning Ashby’s manor into a grand castle.
Bosworth
Richard III is killed and Henry Tudor becomes Henry VII.
Siege and home life
Civil War reshapes Ashby while the 1620s House preserves a more human story.
Canal and furnace
The Ashby Canal opens and Moira Furnace is built for an industrial age.
Coal, clay and pottery
Extraction and manufacture transform communities and the land.
The railway age
The Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway opens.
Industry dominates
Mining remains central before pits close and landscapes need regeneration.
The Forest begins
The National Forest boundary is agreed and the first trees are planted.
Nethercote Wood
The young woodland that now surrounds Fire & Stars is planted.
The next layer
Restoration and conservation are shaping a more resilient woodland.
Power, siege and a ruined skyline
William, Lord Hastings, one of Edward IV’s most powerful servants, began transforming a modest manor at Ashby in 1472–73. His ambitious work was only partly complete when Richard III ordered his execution in 1483.
Generations later, Ashby became a Royalist stronghold during the Civil War. After a long siege it surrendered in 1646, and parts were deliberately demolished. The romantic ruins drew a new wave of visitors after Sir Walter Scott set a scene from Ivanhoe here.
The battle that changed England
On 22 August 1485, Richard III fought Henry Tudor near Bosworth. Richard was killed, Henry became Henry VII, and a new Tudor dynasty began.
The landscape held a second story. Centuries later, research and archaeology helped relocate the main battlefield. Finds included the largest recorded group of cannonballs from a medieval battlefield, revealing how important gunpowder weapons were that day.
What did everyday life actually feel like?
The house at Donington le Heath has roots around 1290, much older than its present name suggests. Today its furnished rooms interpret life in the early 17th century, while the building itself carries traces left by the people who lived there.
Look for deliberate taper burns and protective marks cut into timber and stone. The Digby family links the house to Tudor religious upheaval, the Wars of the Roses and Sir Everard Digby’s part in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot.
Visit the 1620s HouseFrom rural landscape to industrial powerhouse
What lay beneath the ground began to shape everything above it. Extraction changed the land, grew settlements and created demand for canals, furnaces, potteries and railways.
Coal
Collieries powered industry and became central to communities around Moira, Measham and the Ashby Woulds.
Clay
Rich local deposits supported brick, pipe and sanitary-ware production around Swadlincote.
Iron
Local coal and ironstone inspired an ambitious blast furnace beside the new canal at Moira.
An industrial transport route
Completed in 1804, the lock-free canal served the coalfields around Moira and Measham. Tramways connected mines and works to its northern end, but mining subsidence later forced closures between Moira and Snarestone.
Quiet water and wildlife
The surviving canal is now valued for wildlife, boating and easy towpath walks. Its calmer modern life makes the contrast with the industrial waterway especially clear.
Where iron met coal
Built for the Earl of Moira in 1804–06, the coke-fired blast furnace was intended to exploit local coal and iron resources beside the new canal. Its working life was short, but the surviving structure is a powerful reminder of the industrial landscape that existed before today’s National Forest.
Now the furnace stands within regenerated green space, making the contrast between extraction and recovery especially vivid.
Plan a visit1804–06
An early coke-fired blast furnace, preserved beside the Ashby Canal.
Swadlincote shaped in fire
Thomas Sharpe established his pottery in 1821. Local clay and coal supported a major ceramics industry, and Sharpe’s became especially associated with sanitary ware and drainage products that helped improve public health.
The former works now preserve that industrial story, including a Grade II listed bottle kiln believed to be part of one of the oldest surviving sanitary pottery works in the country.
First came the canal. Then came the railway.
The Battlefield Line is the surviving part of the Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway, opened in 1873. Today heritage trains run from Shackerstone through Market Bosworth to Shenton.
With Shackerstone only a short journey from Fire & Stars, this is industrial history almost on our doorstep.
Check current servicesThe former joint railway opened, linking local communities and industries to a faster transport age.
From black to green
When mining and clay extraction declined in the 1980s, parts of the region were left scarred and derelict. The National Forest grew from the idea that trees could become a catalyst for environmental, social and economic regeneration.
- Coal & clay
- Industry
- Extraction
- Woodland & wildlife
- Regeneration
- Restoration
Not every part of The National Forest was industrial land. The project connects new woodland with older countryside and the ancient remnants of Charnwood and Needwood.
The story is still being written
The woodland surrounding Fire & Stars was planted as part of this national transformation. Now it is entering another phase.
Significant ash dieback means parts of the young plantation need to be restored and diversified. The aim is a woodland that is more resilient, more varied and more valuable for wildlife, while remaining a place people can experience and enjoy.
Don’t just read the history. Walk through it.
The Heart of the Forest Trail begins around Moira Furnace and links former mining and industrial landscapes transformed into woodland, lakes and wildlife habitat. Its two circuits can be walked separately or combined.
Choose a chapter to visit
Ashby Castle
Climb through centuries of ambition, siege and ruin.
Official visitor information →Bosworth Battlefield
Explore the battle and the archaeology that rediscovered it.
Plan your visit →1620s House
Historic rooms, gardens and the marks people left behind.
Plan your visit →Moira Furnace
A landmark from the industrial landscape before the Forest.
Official visitor information →Battlefield Line
Ride the surviving stretch from Shackerstone to Shenton.
Check current services →Sharpe’s Pottery
Step inside Swadlincote’s distinctive industrial story.
Plan your visit →Ashby Canal
Follow a route built for coal that now carries walkers and wildlife.
Explore the canal →Layers of history around the campsite
Fire & Stars sits near the middle of a compact group of historic places. This sketch helps you see their rough relationship before checking live directions.
Nethercote Wood
Shackerstone
Illustrative, not to scale. Use each attraction’s official site for current directions and access information.
A changing landscape can become something different.
The National Forest exists because people chose restoration over decline. Nethercote Wood is one small part of that transformation, and the work happening here today will shape what visitors find beneath these trees decades from now.