Hidden Gem in Cambridgeshire

Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire is a small village on the River Nene whose castle, now reduced to a single grassy motte and a fragment of masonry, was the site of two of the most significant events in English history: the birth of Richard III in 1452 and the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in February 1587. The combination of these historical associations and the peaceful rural character of the village and its Norman church creates one of the most poignant heritage sites in the English Midlands. The execution of Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay was one of the most dramatic and most consequential events of the Elizabethan period. Mary was imprisoned in various English castles for nineteen years before Elizabeth finally agreed to her execution following her implication in the Babington Plot of 1586. The execution took place in the great hall of the castle on 8 February 1587 and Mary's courage in the face of death, combined with the botched nature of the execution itself, created an immediate legend that has sustained popular interest in the event for four centuries. The village church of St Mary and All Saints, a magnificent Perpendicular Gothic church of the fifteenth century that was originally the collegiate church of the castle, preserves the tombs of Edmund of Langley and his wife in the chancel and provides a tangible connection to the medieval and Tudor history of this remarkable place. The riverside walk between the church and the castle motte provides the most direct encounter with the landscape that witnessed these events.

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.