Caldecotte Lake

Caldecotte Lake was built in 1982 as a balancing lake and is the second largest lake in MK.  The lake forms part of Milton Keynes urban drainage system by controlling flooding through storing the flood water from the River Ouzel as it enters MK. 

                   

The lake has an urban location with housing built on the southern end and therefore receives sewer discharge from the adjacent areas of Walnut Tree and Tilbrook.  The lake has been enclosed by road and rail connections by the A5D, the Bedford to Bletchley railway line, Brickhill Street, and Simpson Road.  There is also a four lane road, the H10 Bletcham Way (A4146), which crosses the lake on a bridge, dividing the northern and southern lakes.     

Due to its location the lake has various uses.  It has a hotel, restaurant and children’s play area, a sailing club, provides opportunities for people to walk, cycle and fish, and it also aims to attract the local wildlife, particularly water fowl.  However, these cannot all mix together so there have been restrictions of boats to some areas of the lake to encourage the wildlife.

     

There have been plans to construct 109 new homes, a seven-unit hotel and nursery which began in October 2006 and is due to finish in September 2008 but this is a scaled down version of what was previously proposed.  Local residents protested about the plans so the development has had to decrease.  These protests were not based on the damage it would do to the wildlife but instead the loss of green space and the fact that people living by the lake do not want to be over looked by more housing.

      

www.theparkstrust.com

Blue Lagoon Local Nature Reserve

Blue Lagoon LNR is located in Bletchley, south Milton Keynes. It is managed by Milton Keynes Borough Council with help provided with the support from English Nature.  Blue Lagoon is designated as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and is the only one in the borough of
Milton Keynes.  Blue Lagoon has also been designated as a Biological Notification Site (BNS) and a Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Site.  The site is 26.3 ha. 

                   

The reserve has shallow ponds, a 60ft deep lagoon, scrubland, grassland and woodland offering a wide range of diverse habitats.  Within these areas are footpaths and boardwalks guiding visitors around the reserve.  The lagoon is also used by a local scuba diving club where they explore lorries that have been put in the lake.

        

The site of the reserve was previously occupied by brickworks and to the west of the reserve a landfill site has been created.  What is now the lagoon is where the clay pits were and on the landfill site these pits are now being filled in with rubbish.  Bletchley was a good location for these brickworks as it sits on the Oxford clay belt.  There was plenty of business for these brickworks, the first one opened in 1890, saw the development of Milton Keynes and provided the bricks until the Blue Lagoon site closed in 1970.  The final brickworks closed in 1990 which is now where the landfill site is located.

            

Greenwich Wetland Park

The 4 acre fresh water park was created by English Partnerships in 2000 as part of the regeneration of the Brownfield land on the Greenwich Peninsular.  The park opened in 2002 to the public.  In the park there are 2 lakes, areas of shingle beach, marsh, meadow, wet woodland and 2 bird hides.  The site has a network of board walks giving easy access to the public.

 

However, the park is over looked by the Millennium Village which gives the impression that the park was an after thought.  This gives a poor experience of ‘being with nature’ as you can constantly see the built environment which surrounds the park.  The park has a visitor centre and I can see its value it has for young children learning about nature.  Getting to the park was not very easy and the size and the experience of the park does not justify the journey length.

 

Studland

I visited Studland to do research for my landscape management report.  Studland is located on the south coast of England in the county of Dorset.  It offers a 4 mile sandy beach, sand dunes and heathland.  The area attracts over 1.5 million visitors a year and on a peak day in the summer Studaland can receive over 30,000 visitors.

Studland beach 

The coastal site forms part of the Purbeck Heritage Coast and is a gateway to the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.  The beach is split up into three sections South, Middle and Knoll beach.  However, over the past 10 years the Studland has had to deal with rapid coastal erosion.  Previously the National Trust tried to defend the beach from the sea using man-made defences such as gabions.  But since 1998 the National Trust has adopted management retreat which means any man-made defences will not be replaced.  They now feel that any man-made features on the beach can adversely affect the beauty of the area.

  

Sand dunes 

The dunes are of high national importance because all 6 British reptile species inhabit the area; these include the smooth snake and sand lizard.  However, they have been breached a few times due to strong stormy weather.  They are also suffering with erosion due to trampling.  There are some areas on the sand dunes which are sectioned off from the public to allow marram grass to re-colonise and stabilise the sand dunes.  These sectioned off areas also provides added protection to the reptiles.

 

 Studland Heath  

The heath is 1559 acres and has been a National Nature Reserve since 1962.  It is also an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and has other protection policies due to its importance for nature conservation.  The National Trust have been managing the site since 1982 previously it was managed by English Nature.  Since the National Trust has taken over with its management they have put in board walks and nature trails to encourage visitors to spread over the whole of the Studland site. 

  

Visiting this site for my report it offered me another area to study instead of urban projects which I have looked at in the past.  I really enjoyed looking at the natural elements of a site instead of the built environments.  I like looking at the natural processes of this site such as sand dune succession and erosion processes.  It was also good to see the conflict between nature and man and how to solve the problem to allow them to work side by side.  I would like to continue to look at this field of study during the next semester as I find this a lot more interesting and enjoyable. 

www.nationaltrust.org