Priors Coppice is owned by Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust, covers 29 ha and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This is an ancient ash-maple and ash-wych elm woodland, probably a relic of the wildwood which covered all of Leicestershire and Rutland before prehistoric people started to clear it. The area which is now know, as Prior's Coppice was probably not cleared of trees because the combination of steep north facing slope and the very heavy clay soil must have made it seem a very unpromising place for cultivation. Conservation management of the woodland involves re-introduction of coppicing in some areas to encourage those species which benefit from this process, and the retention of other areas as minimum intervention zones. 
The wide rides present in the wood contain exceptionally fine examples of woodland marshy grassland, a distinctive but increasingly rare habitat in our counties. The rides are mown annually, and the cut vegetation removed. The shrubs alongside the rides are cut in sections on a rotation of 7-10 years. At some ride junctions glades have been created by coppicing of the surrounding woodland.

Badger, fox, stoat, muntjac and grass-snake have all been recorded and of 71 species of birds noted to date, 42 have probably bred. There are good numbers of nuthatch, blackcap, garden warbler and many others. Rare visitors have included pied flycatcher and redstart. 
Invertebrate life has not been as well documented, but species of interest which have been recorded are the very local speckled bush-cricket and the slug Limax cinereoniger. More than 200 species of moth are known to have occurred, and orange tip and brimstone butterflies are common in spring. Both purple and white-letter hairstreaks are present.