Conkers Creation

The creation of CONKERS (previously known as the National Forest Millennium Discovery Centre) was pioneered by the The National Forest Charitable Trust (formerly Heart of the National Forest Foundation) - a partnership of business, the community and the public sector, drawn principally from Leicestershire and supported by an influential body of Patrons.

The Trust’s vision is to create a magnificent wooded parkland, at the heart of the emerging National Forest. This Forest Park, which will ultimately span 1000 acres, will be the means of restoring huge tracts of derelict land, left devastated by the closure of the old Midlands Coalfields.

The Trust’s vision won huge community backing and, with the significant support of the public and private sectors, became the subject of a successful bid to the Millennium Commission. With the support of many other funders and sponsors, CONKERS has been created right at the heart of the proposed Forest

Park, on the site of the old Rawdon colliery at Moira - the last deep mine to close in the Coalfields.
With regular refreshment of the facilities offered at CONKERS, the Trust considers that the creation of CONKERS will be the hub of the whole regeneration of the devastated Midlands Coalfields, at the heart of the emerging National Forest, and the catalyst for the creation of the wider 1000-acre Forest Park.