Bluegate Farm Holiday Cottages
Bluegate Farm is a working family farm, with a beef herd, free-range hens, a bakery, a…
King's Wood Heath & Reach National Nature Reserve
LOCATION
HEATH AND REACH, BEDFORDSHIRE
RECOMMENDED BY
Our View
The King’s Wood Heath & Reach NNR is an important area of ancient semi-natural woodland. In early medieval times it was part of the royal manorial estate of Leighton, hence the name ‘King’s Wood’. The site lies on an unusual mixture of soils. Birch, sessile oak, bracken and heather grow in the sandy areas, with pedunculate oak, hornbeam and dog’s mercury on the clay. There are small-leaved lime trees here and a large population of lily-of-the-valley. The site is also home to rare mosses and fungi and there are recent records of the elusive purple emperor butterfly. The Greensand Trust is restoring some of the areas of plantations back to heathland to provide valuable habitats for species such as adders, common lizards, tree pipits and woodlarks. The heronry, visible from the Visitor Centre, provides a secure breeding site for about 8-10 pairs of grey herons each year.
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Discover Bedfordshire
At its most southern point, Bedfordshire is only 35 miles from London Waterloo, so there’s a good reason for the UK’s fifth busiest airport to be called London Luton Airport. The county is one of England’s smaller in terms of area, but more than makes up for it in terms of business HQs and visitor attractions. Among the most popular of these, and among the top attractions in the UK, is ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, founded in 1931, and now covering around 600 acres.
Along similar lines Woburn Safari Park opened more recently (in 1970) and is just over half the size. Fans of old flying machines or cars will enjoy a visit to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden, a tiny village near Biggleswade. Among the oldest examples in the collection are a pioneering French Blériot XI from 1910, and a number of early French and German automobiles from the very late 19th century.
Bedford itself is located on either side of the River Ouse, and has a large Italian population, descended from those who came to work at a local brick factory in the 1950s.
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