Pensthorpe Nature Reserve -near Fakenham -Norfolk-30May2009

Pensthorpe Nature Reserve -near Fakenham -Norfolk-26oct2005

Pensthorpe Natural Park is located in Pensthorpe,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

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 ...

and is approximately one mile from

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north west of Norwich. The town is the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to Norw ...

and close to the

A1067 road A1, A-1, A01 or A.1. may refer to: Education * A1, the Basic Language Certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages * Language A1, the former name for "Language A: literature", one of the IB Group 1 subjects * A1, a ...

. The park covers . The

River Wensum The River Wensum is a chalk river in Norfolk, England and a tributary of the River Yare, despite being the larger of the two rivers. The river is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. The Wensum is ...

, which runs through the site, is a designated

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 a ...

(SAC). Pensthorpe Conservation Trust (PCT) was formed in January 2003. It is a charitable trust that works closely with Pensthorpe Natural Park to showcase the importance of species and

habitat conservation Habitat conservation is a management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore habitats and prevent species extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range. It is a priority of many groups that cannot be easily characterized in ter ...

. The PCT works with partner organisations in national conservation programmes to conserve wetland and farmland bird species. These partnerships include Operation Turtle Dove, The Great Crane Project and re-introduction projects for

red squirrels The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...

and corncrakes.

History

The site was created as a nature reserve by Bill Makins in the 1980s, before being bought by Bill and Deb Jordan in 2003, of Jordans cereals. During excavations to create the lakes and wader scrapes, one million tons of aggregates were excavated. The work uncovered finds including a

hand axe A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or ...

believed to date from 8000 BC. Tusks and the tooth from a

woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...

were also found.

Media

The reserve was the location of the BBC programme '' Springwatch'' from May 2008 to 2010. First broadcast in December 2013, the first episode of the BBC television series '' Great British Garden Revival'' was based in the reserve.Great British Garden Revival
Retrieved 28 September 2014

References

External links

Official website

Springwatch website

''Springwatch'' in May 2008
Nature reserves in Norfolk Birdwatching sites in England Nature centres in England {{Protected-area-stub