Scenic Place in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough

Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire is the oldest nature reserve in Britain, a fragment of the original fenland that once covered vast areas of East Anglia that has been managed by the National Trust since 1899 and provides the only surviving example of the natural fen habitat that has been almost completely drained and converted to agriculture across the rest of the region. The combination of the extraordinary ecological importance, the historical depth of the conservation tradition and the remarkable wildlife accessible at close range makes Wicken Fen one of the most significant natural heritage sites in England. The fen supports an exceptional variety of wildlife adapted to the wetland habitats of open water, reedbed, sedge fen and fen meadow that have largely disappeared from the wider fenland landscape. Over 8,000 species of plants, insects and animals have been recorded on the reserve, including over 1,000 beetle species alone, a diversity that reflects the complexity of the ancient fen ecosystem and the sustained quality of the management that has maintained it. The National Trust is engaged in a long-term project to extend the fen by purchasing and rewetting surrounding farmland, aiming to create a fen of approximately 5,300 hectares over the next hundred years in one of the most ambitious rewilding projects in England. The project is converting intensive arable land back to wetland habitat in a reversal of the drainage that destroyed the original fen, creating new habitat for the wildlife that has survived in the Wicken fragment. The fen tower hide and the board-walked trails through the reed provide excellent wildlife watching in every season.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden is one of the finest botanic gardens in Britain, a 40-acre scientific collection and public garden in the heart of Cambridge that has been developed continuously since its establishment on the present site in 1846. The garden serves both as a living scientific collection for the University of Cambridge's research and teaching programmes and as a public garden of considerable horticultural quality and seasonal interest, and the combination of scientific rigour and aesthetic ambition has produced a garden that succeeds on both levels simultaneously. The garden was founded by Professor John Stevens Henslow, who was Charles Darwin's mentor at Cambridge and who directed the young Darwin toward natural history fieldwork that ultimately led to the development of evolutionary theory. Henslow recognised the inadequacy of the university's earlier botanical garden and secured the present site and resources to create a properly equipped scientific collection of plants from around the world. The scientific tradition Henslow established has been maintained and developed across nearly two centuries, with the garden's research collections and seed bank contributing to contemporary plant conservation and climate change research. The main features of the garden include the rock garden, one of the finest in any British botanic garden; the systematic beds, where plants are arranged by taxonomic family to allow direct comparison of related species; the glasshouses containing tropical, Mediterranean, arid and alpine plant collections; and the extensive winter garden designed to provide interest and colour during the quietest months of the horticultural year. The nine National Collections of genera hosted by the garden include nationally important holdings of Tulipa, Geranium and Fritillaria. The garden's location within Cambridge makes it an excellent complement to a visit to the university colleges, museums and the River Cam, and the combination of scientific interest and garden beauty makes it rewarding for visitors with widely varying backgrounds and interests.