Paxton Pits is an area of active and disused

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Old, abandoned gravel pits are normally used eithe ...

s at

Little Paxton Little Paxton in Cambridgeshire, England is a village and civil parish that lies south of Huntingdon and north of St Neots. It is in the district and historic county of Huntingdonshire. Until the 1970s it was a minor village and the church was ...

near

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

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 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 ...

. The disused pits have been turned into a

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 ...

with 77 hectares of lakes, meadow, grassland, scrub and woodland. The reserve is famous for its nightingales and cormorants and is home to a wide variety of other birds, insects, mammals and flora. There are two marked self guided walking routes around the reserve, together with the Rivet Trail that follows the route of the Ouse Valley Way. The circular 2 mile Heron Trail (the first mile of which is a hard surfaced track suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs and all season walking) goes past lakes, through woodland and along the river bank, and which has three bird hides to view the water birds. The circular 1.5 mile Meadow Trail goes through meadows and around lakes and is especially good for wildflowers in spring and summer and dragonflies on sunny days, although some of the paths become quite muddy in winter and during wet weather. The reserve has free parking at the visitor and education centre, with a cafe and toilets.

External links

Paxton PitsHuntingdonshire District Council
Nature reserves in Cambridgeshire {{Cambridgeshire-geo-stub