Paxton Pits Nature Reserve is set to expand from 192 acres to over 700 acres under a new agreement signed by Huntingdonshire District Council. This will make the site, which straddles Little Paxton, Southoe and Diddington, one of Cambridgeshire’s largest nature reserves. The additional land, currently part of Aggregates Industries’ Little Paxton Quarry, is owned by Oxford University Chest and Thornhill Settled Estate. 

Through the phased release of quarried land over the next ten years, Paxton Pits’ wildlife will be enhanced by the addition of 60 acres of reedbed – a nationally scarce habitat, extra lakes and new islands. Wildflower-rich wet grassland and rare wet woodland habitat will also be created. The plan’s inclusion of 60 acres of scrub habitat is especially important to ensure the future success of the famous nightingale population at Paxton Pits.

The Nature Reserve currently attracts around 120,000 visitors a year and this figure is expected to rise as the reputation of the reserve along with the facilities and opportunities that it offers become more widely known.

Executive Councillor for Operations, Parks and Countryside, Colin Hyams said ‘I am delighted that we have signed this agreement to expand Paxton Pits Nature Reserve so significantly. I am very proud of the Reserve; it is a wonderful asset to the district, very popular with residents and visitors alike. It is already a beautiful place to visit, and this expansion will make it one of Cambridgeshire’s main visitor attractions’.

Some of the quarried land that will not be incorporated into the Nature Reserve will be available for other leisure activities operated by the private sector.  This, together with the extended Nature Reserve, will eventually provide a complex of lakes and public open spaces at Paxton Pits covering some 1,500 acres in total. Footpaths, bridleways and a cycle track will stretch for 29 kilometres across the entire site.