Old John the upper floor, and is open to visitors on the park's guided walk programmes. In 2001, Bradgate Park Trust registered the design of the building as a trademark, and in 2018 told a local artist that she would have to pay them if she continued to sell her paintings of it. Adjacent to the tower is a toposcope installed in 1953. This was installed by the people of Newtown Linford from money raised at the 1953 'Pageant of Lady Jane Grey', performed to celebrate 400 years since she was proclaimed Queen of England. Old John Tower occupies the north-eastern end
Bradgate Park topped by vertical pales of oak. These first ditchworks cross the River Lyn east of the Little Matlock Gorge. A parker, living in a moated house, was the only occupant, maintaining stocks of deer for the lord of Groby Manor to hunt. The park was greatly extended by the first marquis in the late 15th century, to occupy land previously farmed by both Newtown Linford and the now lost village of Bradgate. Lichen dating of the dry-stone walls suggest that the north and west boundary walls were built in the 17th and early 18th centuries, when Bradgate was still occupied