Little Paxton: 29 SEPTEMBER 2022
LITTLE PAXTON 29 SEPTEMBER 2022
By Muddy Boots
Little Paxton (pop. approx. 3,000) is located on the River Great Ouse just to the north of St Neots. The village of Great Paxton is a couple of kilometres to the east on the other side of the Ouse. Until the 1970’s Little Paxton was a very minor village, not even mentioned in the Domesday Book but only covered under an entry for Great Paxton, (not a particularly significant village itself).
Things changed in the 1970’s when a large housing development was built, totally dwarfing the original village (and also Great Paxton, in both population and size).
The quarrying of gravel has been an important industry in Little Paxton and indeed the wider area since the 19th century, with gravel pits stretching almost continually north along the Great Ouse as far as Huntingdon. In 1989 the Paxton Pits Nature reserve opened on the site of those quarries in the area no longer in use.
Today Peterborough Ramblers ventured perhaps the furthest south ever for our walk, with around twenty-five of us assembling on a perfect late September day at the Little Paxton Pits Nature Reserve car park for a walk of five miles. The potential for sighting a wide variety of water birds, dragonflies and even otter was hinted at by our leader Ian. The excitement level amongst us all at the prospect was palpable.
The reserve has been extremely well planned with excellent walking trails. We walked almost entirely through areas of woodland, along the sides of large ponds and for some distance along the banks of the Great Ouse, with occasional glimpses of fast trains hurtling along the east coast main line, passing on the edge of the reserve the large area of quarrying still taking place.
This was a most pleasant walk, totally new to just about all. I would love to wax lyrical about the wide range of water birds, insects and mammals that we marvelled at as we walked along, regrettably the best I think all of us could manage was a couple of swans spotted some distance away on a pond.
Never mind, it was still, as most remarked, an excellent walk and many thanks to Ian and Diana for organising.
About The Author
Tony Attwood
This website mostly controls our press officer, but occasionally he manages to wrestle back a modicum of oversight. You can reach him via tony@schools.co.uk