Stockgrove Country Park is located in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on the

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

border in the parish of

Heath and Reach Heath and Reach is an English village and civil parish near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire. It is north of Leighton Buzzard and south of Woburn and adjoins the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. Nearby places are Leighton-Linslade, ...

. Stockgrove Park's 80 acres is part of the larger 400 acre woods called Rushmere Country Park, managed by the Greensand Trust. The Greensand Trust manages this area comprising Rushmere (200 acres), Stockgrove (80 acres), Oak Wood (100 acres) and Rammamere and parts of Kings Wood. Stockgrove was opened to the public in 1972 and Rushmere is the newest addition to the Estate, opened in 2011. The largest of the lakes features the remains of a

boathouse A boathouse (or a boat house) is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. describing the facilities These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats ...

that burned down in 1963 – only its brick arches are left.

Mandarin duck The mandarin duck (''Aix galericulata'') is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is medium-sized, at long with a wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus ''Aix''. ...

s took up residence in 1997 and have bred there ever since. The park is partly in the

Kings and Bakers Woods and Heaths Kings and Bakers Woods and Heaths is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) between Heath and Reach in Bedfordshire and Great Brickhill in Buckinghamshire. The site is mainly in Bedfordshire but includes Rammamere Heath in Buckinghamshir ...

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 ...

Stockgrove Estate

The park was originally part of the Stockgrove Estate based at a house in the Buckinghamshire parish of

Soulbury Soulbury is a village and also a civil parish within the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about seven miles south of Central Milton Keynes, and three miles north of Wing. The village nam ...

. Edwin Hanmer bought the Stock Grove Farm estate in 1792, and the family enlarged the estate by buying Bragenham Manor in 1852. The politician

Henry Hanmer Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Hanmer, (23 January 1789 – 2 February 1868) was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1831 to 1837. Hanmer was the fifth son of Sir Thomas Hanmer, 2nd Baronet of Hanmer, Bettisfield Park i ...

lived at Stockgrove Park. From 1928 to 1949 the estate was owned by Sir Michael Kroyer-Kielberg (1882–1958). He commissioned the architect

William Curtis Green William Curtis Green (16 July 1875 – 26 March 1960) was an English architect, designer and barrister"Quite ceremony in Archbishop's Palace", ''The Nottingham Evening Post'', 3 August 1935, p. 8. who was based in London for much of his career. ...

to design and build a new house, and re-landscaped the parkland. During 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 ...

the estate was used by the Army. From the 1950s the house was used as a school for children with special educational needs, run first by

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

, then by the

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corpor ...

, and finally by the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

until the school closed in 1994.Stockgrove Country Park
circa 1975.Community Care

24 May 2000. In 1971 the parkland was jointly purchased by the Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire County Councils. The park was opened to the public in 1972, and it was extended in 1973.

References

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External links

Bedfordshire Bat Group: Surveys: Stockgrove Country Park
Country parks in Bedfordshire Country parks in Buckinghamshire