Forest to Park Grimsthorpe Park was the southern edge of the great Lincolnshire forest. Oak trees that had been recorded in the Doomsday Book of 1086 were growing in the park when drawings of the park were made in the early 18th century. Some of these ancient trees were still growing here in the 20th century Oaks were felled during the Tudor period for ship building and again during Cromwell’s ten year Commonwealth.

The oak trees you see today were planted after the restoration of the Stuart Monarchy, the straight ridings through the trees creating a formal park. The Four Mile Riding was a double planted oak avenue which ran from the castle to the boundary of the Park. The formal pattern of the ridings remains, though some have been replanted as chestnut avenues.

In the 18th century the open Vaudey became the ‘Foal Field Race’ with gallops for training the 3rd Duke of Ancaster’s racehorses. In the 1920s the Vaudey was used as a 9 hole golf course, and served as a bombing range during the Second World War. Nowadays the Vaudey is farmed.

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