Woodwalton Fen is a 209 hectare biological

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 ...

in the parish of Woodwalton, west of

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...

Huntingdonshire Huntingdonshire (; abbreviated Hunts) is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire and a historic county of England. The district council is based in Huntingdon. Other towns include St Ives, Godmanchester, St Neots and Ramsey. The popul ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, England. It is a

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in ...

wetland site of international importance, a National Nature Reserve, a

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

and a

Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initial ...

site, Grade I. The site is managed by

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

History

One of the first

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

s to be created in England, Woodwalton Fen was bought by the banker and

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Charles Rothschild Nathaniel Charles Rothschild (9 May 1877 – 12 October 1923), known as "Charles", was an English banker and entomologist and a member of the Rothschild family. He is remembered for The Rothschild List, a list he made in 1915 of 284 sites acros ...

in 1910. Rothschild intended to present the site to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, but they declined it, and it was kept initially as a private nature reserve. In 1911 Rothschild built a bungalow on the fen for his own use. The bungalow was rethatched in 2011. In 2022, the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire launched a crowdfunding campaign, aiming to raise £400,000 to purchase the Speechly’s Farm to connect the Woodwalton Fen and the Holme Fen National Nature Reserves.

Ecology

The site has one of the few remaining ranges of flora characteristic of the East Anglian Fens. There are rare fen plants such as fen wood-rush and fen violet, and ditches have uncommon aquatic plants including

bladderwort ''Utricularia'', commonly and collectively called the bladderworts, is a genus of carnivorous plants consisting of approximately 233 species (precise counts differ based on classification opinions; a 2001 publication lists 215 species).Salmon, Br ...

and

water violet ''Hottonia palustris'', also water violet or featherfoil, is an aquatic plant in the family Primulaceae. Description The plant has a stem reaching up to in height. Its basal roots are buried in the underlying mud, while other silvery, shiny r ...

Threats

As well as being a nature reserve, Woodwalton Fen is used to store winter flood water. There are issues relating to water quality. The flood water entering Woodwalton Fen has high

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

and

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

loads.

Relationship with other East Anglian fens

It is part of a

Fenland SAC Fenland is a multi-site Special Area of Conservation in the The Fens, Fens (a region in eastern England). It was designated in 2005 to protect three wetland sites in Cambridgeshire with an area of 619 ha: * Chippenham Fen () * Wicken Fen () * Woo ...

, which includes two other fragments of wild fenland in Cambridgeshire:

Wicken Fen Wicken Fen is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Wicken in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve, and a Nature Conservation Review site. It is protected by international designations as a Ramsar wetland si ...

(about 38 miles from Woodwalton) and Chippenham Fen. As part of the

Great Fen Project The Great Fen is a habitat restoration project being undertaken on The Fens in the county of Cambridgeshire in England. It is one of the largest restoration projects in the country, and aims to create a 3,700 hectare wetland and aims to connect ...

, Woodwalton Fen is being connected to

Holme Fen Holme Fen is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Holme in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. It is part of the Great Fen project, which aims to create a 3,700 w ...

via

habitat restoration Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interrupt ...

of land which has been under arable cultivation. The Great Fen Project started with the purchase of 82 hectares of land (Darlows Farm), to the north of Woodwalton Fen in 2002. The Cambridge Geological Society designed the

Fen Edge Trail A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. T ...

that follows the five-metre contour, which 3,000 years ago was near the maritime coast of England. Woodwalton Fen NNR information point - geograph

Access

There is access to the reserve from Chapel Road in Ramsey Heights village.

References

External links

greatfen.org.uk
{{SSSIs Cambridgeshire Fens of England Nature reserves in Cambridgeshire Protected areas established in 1910 Ramsar sites in England Rothschild family residences Bungalow architecture Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Cambridgeshire Special Areas of Conservation in England Nature Conservation Review sites