Monument record MDR14244 - Edlaston Park (site of), Edlaston and Wyaston

Much of the southern part of Edlaston and Wyaston civil parish was disrupted by the creation of Darley Moor airfield, currently used as a race track [2009]. This effectively destroyed the neat ovoid shape, shown on a plan of the manor of Edlaston in 1824, which lay directly south of Edlaston Hall, marking the site of the medieval park. The shape was still in tact on the 1899 6" OS map, showing the long curving hedge lines. At that time Holly Wood was much more extensive, but today only a fragment of this remains along the brook below Coppice Farm, where it is suggested that the medieval fishponds were located. This area is now managed as a nature reserve. Behind the present hall is an area of level ground giving the appearance of a house platform and this may be the site of an earlier dwelling. A capital messuage, fishpond and park were developed here and may have survived the dissolution, but there is little documentary evidence to support this. It was eventually granted by the crown to Sir William Paget and later sold to Sir Edward Aston. No documentary evidence for a park has been found after 1330, so it may have been short lived. (1)