Footpath across Wicksteed Park land to shut for weeks of work
A footpath that cuts across the Ise Valley linking Barton Road and Cheyne Walk across Wicksteed Park Trust-owned land will close for more than a month.
The permissive footpath runs across the meadow parallel to the River Ise from Grantown Close skate park to the A6 Barton Road pedestrian entrance to Wicksteed Park across North Meadow.
Work, that is due to take four to six weeks, begins on Friday (October 24) to restore the river’s flood plain including reinstating ditches and creating wetland scrapes.
A spokesman for Wicksteed Park said: “The permissive footpath that runs along the River Ise from Barton Road to Cheyne Walk will be closed on Friday, October 24, 2025 for four to six weeks to carry out river restoration works.
“This vital work will reconnect the Ise Brook with its floodplain by lowering and widening the banks of the river, reinstating the water ditches, and creating wetland scrapes with a spring-line pond. The project aims to help with flood mitigation, improve river health and increase biodiversity to the surrounding meadows.”
Restoration will return the landscape to when before modern farming techniques were used. Instead of fertilisers, farmers would improve their grazing pastures by flooding the land with nutrient rich river water to feed the grass.
North Meadow was originally designed by English landscape gardener Humphry Repton and was once part of the Barton Hall Estate.