was substantially complete and built up. Queen's Road and Clarendon Park Road were provided with shops and other community facilities. Large, well-funded churches were rapidly established both in Clarendon Park and to a lesser extent Stoneygate. Among these were St John the Baptist Anglican Church (1885), London Road Congregational (1886), Queen's Road Primitive Methodist (1887), Clarendon Park Road Baptist (1894), St. Michael and All Angels Anglican (1898), Clarendon Park Road Wesleyan Methodist (1901 replacing an 1886 mission hall), Salvation Army (1901) and Stoneygate Baptist (1905). Boundary changes The historic parish occupied a broad swathe of land on the southern border of Leicester. From Safron lane in the west, it was roughly wide, extending to the Gartree Road in the east. Knighton was formerly a chapelry in St. Margaret parish, from 1866 Knighton was a civil parish in its own right until it was abolished on 26 March 1896 and merged with Leicester. Knighton Park Knighton Park forms the southern part of the neighbourhood, south of the A563 Palmerston Way. The park was bought from the Craddock-Hartopp trustees by Leicester city council in the late 1930s but wartime prevented its conversion to a public park until 1953. The various compartments and zones within the Park still reflect many of the divisions of the land put in place in 1756 for agricultural improvements when the Knighton open fields were enclosed and subdivided for the first time. Knighton Spinney is a small area of woodland on the north-east side of the Park, in extent, that was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 2003. It was planted as a mix of oak and ash trees by Squire Craddock-Hartopp in 1840, as he was concerned about the lack of oaks for shipbuilding. With the shift to iron ships, they were never needed for this purpose, but the spinney was used as a covert for foxhunting. By 1932 the Craddocks could see its wildlife value and covenanted it as a wildlife reserve for all time. It now has a diverse woodland structure, and provides a valuable habitat for spring woodland flowers, birds, mammals and insects. The park was first awarded the Green Flag Award in 2005. It has a range of amenities, including two play areas, tennis courts, pitch & put (seasonal opening), sensory garden, heath garden. The Wash Brook runs through the park. St Thomas More's Catholic Church The parish of St Thomas More was