Fen Edge Landscape Trail

Link to Fen Edge Trial on OS Maps

Werrington to the Welland.

A new 10 mile circular, John Clare Countryside Trail across the Fen Edge in the North East corner of Peterborough, where John Clare and his family lived from 1832. SAJ 2022

This trail will consist of linked natural corridors providing public access both on foot and by cycle, to local Heritage sites, promoting the biodiversity, history and culture of our distinctive area.

This landscape scale corridor, will be created using existing public Rights of Way and minor roads, linking the 12,000 people living in the towns of Werrington (a Peterborough Township of 3,000 households) and Deeping St James (5,000 households), via the four villages of Glinton, Northborough, Peakirk and Deeping Gate (total population 4,019). It will also include the building of a new footbridge across the River Welland at Deeping St. James, giving easy access on foot to 160 acres of National Nature Reserve at Deeping Lakes. This part of the project is ready to go, once funding is found.

Along this route there are six areas below the 5m contour and within Flood Zone 3, that could offer additional managed wetland, providing a vital part of local flood planning for the four villages along the route. An important part of project would involve developing these Green Hubs into publicly accessible Local Nature Reserves, with shallow wetlands, wildflower meadows, wet woodland and biodiversity corridors.

Our Fen Edge area has a long history of settlement. There is evidence of Pre-historic, Neolithic, Bronze age and Roman settlements along the route of the Car Dyke, which sits on the 5m contour, running through the area from the Welland at Deeping Gate in the north to Werrington Lakes in the South. This may have been used as a catchwater drain or a transport canal.

Our villages are sited on a gravel spur, with Peakirk being on the easternmost tip. It is agreed that there has been settlement here since early medieval times. Peakirk and Glinton, which formed the home estates of Peterborough Abbey, were one parish until 1856 and were part of the Nassaburgh Hundred. Easy access to this circular route will be available from all six settlements.

Access Point 1: Foxcovert Road which is now a dead end, access only track, with priority given to pedestrians and cyclists. It was the main Peterborough to Lincoln road until the late 18^th Centaury and is one of the oldest roadways in Peterborough. It is part of the Peterborough Green Wheel and the National Cycle Network Route 12. It provides the main access from Werrington to the trail.

Areas of interest include:

• Foxcovert Wood is adjacent to the track and possibly marks the boundary between the Milton Estates and the Fen Edge villages.

• The Werrington Paddocks Nature Reserve is managed by the Werrington Environment Group under the guidance of The Conservation Volunteers is on Foxcovert Road.

Access Point 2: Peakirk Road and North Fen Road Glinton. This is the main road running through Glinton and connecting it to Peakirk. It has a designated cycleway and footpath in the verge at the side of the road. Walking through Peakirk will connect to the trail at this access point. Easy access from Glinton, Northborough and Peakirk. The cycleway joins North Fen road by St. Benedict’s church where John Clare went to school and continues down Mile Drove to the Maxey Cut. The footpath cuts through the Boundary tree belt to the South Drain and then follows the course of the Car Dyke to the Hermitage Field.

Areas of interest include:

• The Hermitage field (3.61H) is a County Wildlife Site, within the Peakirk Conservation Area (2010), owned by Peterborough Diocese Board of Finance and likely to be Glebe Land (Subject to Endowments and Glebe Measures 1976). It is a Site of Local Nature Conservation Importance (CS21) and forms a well-defined edge to the Peakirk settlement. The Car Dyke is a Scheduled Monument running through this field and there are Medieval fish ponds and Barrows in the north of the field, that ‘contribute to our understanding of the development of the pre-historic, Roman and medieval landscapes’. There is also a possible site of clay works used to make local bricks.

• The Old Wildlife Trust site (5.6H) The southern part is now a designated Local Green Space in the Peakirk Neighbourhood Plan. The risk of flooding is high in this area which was originally a natural spring planted with Osier beds. The site now has many ponds, which were originally created by the gravel extraction for the nearby Lincolnshire Loop railway. The area was taken over by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in 1957, under the guidance of Sir Peter Scott, but closed in 2001. 107 trees on site have TPOs on them. It was included on the list of potential projects as a destination on the Green Wheel, which runs through Peakirk.

Access Point 3: Maxey Cut crosses Peakirk Road. The bridge where the Peakirk Road crosses the Maxey Cut provides access from Northborough, south down Paradise Lane and east along the Maxey Cut bank. Access is also easy from Peakirk, north along the Peakirk road, where the eastern verge is designated as a footpath and west from the Site of Waldram Hall, along the north bank of the Maxey Cut

Areas of interest include:

• Deeping Road East, including South Drain. The low-lying permanent grass pasture to the north of the South Drain is also Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust owned, but tenanted by a local farmer. It has a recorded area of Medieval Ridge and Furrow. Its southern boundary is the embanked edge of the South Drain.

• The site of Waldram Hall. This area is the confluence of four waterways. The Welland, the Folly River, the South Drain and the Maxey Cut join at this point. The route of the Car Dyke, marks the boundary of Roman habitation in this area.

Bob Beasley has carried out extensive research into the Lower Welland Valley villages, which suggests that:

In the late 16th C, a significant Meadows river system joined the Welland at Waldram Hall. The river through the Meadows used to pass just to the north of Peakirk through what used to be the Wildfowl Gardens and part of its course can still be seen immediately adjacent to the B1443 Newborough road at Peakirk, west of the railway crossing.

The trail divides here. One section of the trail follows the north bank of the Maxey Cut to the East and turns left at the pumping station onto the footpath linking with the footpath from Deeping Gate along the south bank of the Welland.

The trail also turns West along north bank of the Maxey Cut, to Paradise Lane, Northborough. Walk up Paradise Lane to Church Street and turn left. Cross the road opposite the school and follow the footpath up to the Village Hall. Turn right onto the footpath heading towards Peakirk Road, crossing the course of the Car Dyke again. Turn right onto Peakirk Road and first left down Giddon’s Drove. Turn right onto the footpath along the South Bank of the River Welland.These footpaths meet at the site of the proposed footbridge across the River Welland to Deeping St James.

Access Point: Welland Footbridge, providing easy walking access to Deeping St James and Market Deeping, along the north bank and Deeping Gate, along the south bank.

Areas of interest include:

• Deeping Lakes. SSSI (Details from Lincolnshire WLT)

Wetland south-east of Deeping St James of some 160 acres including part of the Deeping Gravel Pits SSSI and the Welland Bank Pits. There is a main lake (formerly known as "The Lake", dating from 1800) and two areas of smaller lakes and pools (formerly known as Welland Bank Quarry, excavated in the 1990's).

The Lake is noted for its wildfowl and waterbird communities. Management of this area has been aimed at: path maintenance along the southern shore, creating small wildflower meadows and, clearing trees from an area where early marsh orchids were known to grow. A bird hide overlooks the lake.Management of the newer lakes has been concentrated on establishing the grassland areas, coppicing or pollarding trees planted as part of the restoration process, and the removal of self-sown trees around the edges of the various lakes. By keeping the margins free of trees it is hoped that marginal vegetation and reedbeds will naturally develop, and there are some encouraging signs of this. Islands are also being kept "tree free" or even totally free of vegetation to encourage ground nesting birds such as terns, plovers and lapwings.

Access Point: Peakirk Village Green. Folly Crossing Meadows is currently not open to the public but could be accessed turning north from the Thorney Road in Peakirk towards the confluence of the Folly River, Maxey Cut, South Drain and River Welland.

• The Folly Crossing Meadows is It is an area of water meadow, which probably served as part of the summer grazing for Peakirk before the draining of the fen. It is flat, with an altitude ranging from - 1 to +3m AOD and serves as a flood area for the Folly river, being waterlogged in wet winters. HER no: 50113 Bank, [earthworks] designation is within the site. There is good public access along the Corporation Bank Byway [part of the Green Wheel] on the east of the Folly River which is also popular as a footpath. There is scope for the inclusion of this area in the creation of a new Green Infrastructure corridor linking Werrington Brook to the Welland River via the Folly River – The Folly River Corridor. This is a popular local walk and could also be developed as a further public access route from Werrington to the Welland, along the Folly riverbank. The adjacent Peakirk pumping station is an important part of maintaining the water levels in this area.