Barford Road Pocket Park is a 45 acres site & was created in 2001 alongside the development of the Eynesbury Manor housing estate. The park has several types of habitat ranging from wild flower meadow to still water and fast running water.
Facilities
There are no indoor facilities on the site. There are a number of hard surfaced footpaths suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs and some benches around so you can relax in the lovely surroundings.
Graffiti Projects
The graffiti project was under taken by a youth group on behalf of St Neots based charity “Natural High”. The first of the two projects to transform a derelict brick pumping station in to a bat hibernacula (roost). The graffiti art was used on the outside to deter illegal graffiti from being sprayed and to get local youngsters involved and give them a chance to get involved with the site.
The Brick bridge overlooking the conservation lake was decorated, with the same group, to remove an obvious man made structure from the landscape, to blend it into the surroundings, and to remove the graffiti which had started to occur.
Cricket Bat willows
The willows on the island were cut to be used for the creation of cricket bats, primarily, and hockey sticks too. The contractors replanted one young willow whip for each tree cut down to keeps the cycle of wood ongoing.
The majority of the willow was used locally in the creation of bats by a local bat manufacturers. The rest were sent abroad to other manufacturers.
Wildlife & management
Certain areas are managed in different ways depending upon the benefits to the wildlife. The most recent addition for wildlife management was the new fencing along the conservation lake, which was put up in winter 2006/7. This has created a sanctuary area for the nesting birds and for the wild flowers. This fencing has allowed a nesting pair of little ring plovers to be successful as well as the more common mallards, swans and tufted ducks. We have also had great crested grebes breeding successfully along the waters edges. The site is alive with the sound of the skylarks calling and they have moved in from surrounding fields and successfully reared chicks on the rough grassland.
We manage the water edges to keep them wet & boggy by removing the willow & preventing them from taking over causing the edges to dry up. There are three areas of wild flower meadows which are cut in rotation to maintain a variety of different stages of plant growth. The results are a large wild flower range including ox eye daisey, comfry, field scabian, common (hedge) wound-wort, marsh wound-wort, salsify (which is related to the carrot). The variety of flowers maintain a high invertebrate number which in turn improves the small mammal and bird numbers.
There are a wide variety of birds on the site, including reed buntings, reed warblers, sedge warblers and many other bird species. There is also a lizard colony and grass snakes.
Barford Road Pocket Park can be found just off the Ouse Valley Way footpath at Eaton Socon Locks, and a few minutes walk from St Neots Community College, the Leisure Centre and Tesco’s at Eynesbury.
To speak to the Ranger please phone him on 07810 637554. If the matter is urgent then please phone the Rangers at Paxton Pits Nature Reserve on (01480) 406795.