Longmoor Lake at California Country Park - geograph

California Country Park is a

country park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a special meaning. There are around 250 recognised coun ...

covering Long Moor at

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, England. It consists of lowland heath and bogland, including Longmoor Bog, a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI) and Local Nature Reserve. The park is managed by

Wokingham Borough Council Wokingham Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. It is a unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or perform ...

and is open every day throughout the year.

Geography

The country park is situated approximately south of

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

and is bounded by Arborfield Garrison to the west,

to the east, the Nine Mile Ride to the south, and what was once Barkham common to the north. The site covers features a lake. The park features a

ferruginous The adjective ferruginous may mean: * Containing iron, applied to water, oil, and other non-metals * Having rust on the surface * With the rust (color) See also * Ferrous, containing iron (for metals and alloys) or iron(II) cations * Ferric, conta ...

swamp, Longmoor Bog, caused by a bacterium that deposits rust-coloured

iron hydroxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which ...

History

In 1931, it was established as an amusement park and zoo by Alfred Cartilage and was called 'California in England'. Cartilage built the park so that he could use his Teddington-based

Charabanc A charabanc or "char-à-banc" (often pronounced "sharra-bang" in colloquial British English) is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has "ben ...

compan to take parties of people from London to the countryside. The miniature railway was initially laid out to ten and a quarter inch (260mm) gauge but was soon changed to 18inch () and this lasted until the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when the park closed and all the buildings were used for the manufacture of munitions for the aircraft industry. Cartilage reopened the park after the war and set about developing the rides many of which were designed and built onsite, including the Snake Train. The railway was re-established as 18inch gauge using a petrol powered locomotive. His son, Norman, took over in the early 1950s and continued the development of the site. At this time, the original miniature railway terminus station was moved to the outer north-western edge of the extended play and rides area. The track was extended across the bog and had a point installed with the intention of constructing a loop. Trackwork was never completed beyond the apex of the loop, and it is here that after the park closed the last loco on the line was run off into the swamp. The cleared area between the railway and the original rides was developed with extra rides. There was a small

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

, a full size chairoplane, climbing frame,

swing boats A swing boat, colloquially known as a "shuggy boat" in Northern England, is a fairground ride in which pairs of riders pull ropes to swing back and forth. A similar ride called a pirate ship swings in a similar motion but without the rider pullin ...

, and a concrete oval track. The latter was initially intended for petrol driven go-karts but these were replaced by children's pedal cars of the Austin J40 and Pathfinder type. The removal of the original railway station opened up access to a further area of scrub which was cleared to provide a site for a circus which operated each summer for several years. The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

main building, built around 1937, included a sprung glass floored ballroom over the restaurant. This structure was destroyed by fire in 1976. From the 1930s to the 1950s the park was home to a

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

track. The Reading and District Motor Club ran a series of meetings in 1939, on the dirt track laid out in a remote corner of the estate. Later from 1954 to 1956, a local speedway team the

California Poppies California Poppies were a British speedway team based at Longmoor Speedway California in England, California Country Park, Nr Wokingham, Berkshire. History The California Poppies raced in the California Country Park in an area known as Califor ...

rode on the track. In the early 1960s the amusement business was failing and the site obtained new owners who turned it into a holiday camp. Caravan and camping facilities are still available on site at the California Chalet and Touring Park but the main part of the original amusement area is within the country park and now largely overgrown.

Fauna

The park has the following animals

Birds

Cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...

Canada goose The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

Coot Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually ...

* Moorhen *

Swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

Egyptian goose The Egyptian goose (''Alopochen aegyptiaca'') is a member of the duck, goose, and swan family Anatidae. It is native to Africa south of the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Egyptian geese were considered sacred by the Ancient Egyptians, and appeared ...

Invertebrates

Bog bush cricket ''Metrioptera brachyptera'' is a species in the family Tettigoniidae commonly called the bog bush cricket. ''M. brachyptera'' has a body length of 12–16 mm, with color ranging from brownish, with green elements on the upper side of the he ...

* Common Copper Butterfly *

Dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

* Damselfly

Reptiles

Vipera berus ''Vipera berus'', the common European adderMallow D, Ludwig D, Nilson G. (2003). ''True Vipers: Natural History and Toxinology of Old World Vipers''. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. . or common European viper,Stidworthy J. (1974). ...

Amphibian

Palmate newt The palmate newt (''Lissotriton helveticus'') is a species of newt found in Western Europe, from Great Britain to the northern Iberian peninsula. It is long and olive or brown with some dark spots. The underside is yellow to orange, and the thr ...

Flora

The park has the following flora:

Tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s

Alnus glutinosa ''Alnus glutinosa'', the common alder, black alder, European alder, European black alder, or just alder, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to most of Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa. It thrives in wet locations whe ...

Rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...

* Quercus robur *

Hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *'' Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China ...

Plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...
s

Bryophyte

* Sphagnum

Lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Peltigera membranacea ''Peltigera membranacea'' is a species of lichenized fungus in the family Peltigeraceae. It has a foliose growth pattern, with what appear to be veins in the leaf-like parts, but these do not have a vascular function. The apothecia are erect, ...

Facilities

As well as offering walks and wildlife watching, especially around Longmoor Lake, there is a cafe, summer paddling pool, toddler swings and an adventure play area. A 5k parkrun started on 23 February 2019 and takes place every Saturday at 9.00am.

References

External links

California Country Park

{{National and local nature reserves in Berkshire Country parks in Berkshire Borough of Wokingham Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berkshire Local Nature Reserves in Berkshire