Pensthorpe Natural Park

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Pensthorpe Natural Park Pensthorpe Nature Reserve -near Fakenham -Norfolk-30May2009.jpg
Pensthorpe Natural Park
A view across a lake Pensthorpe Nature Reserve -near Fakenham -Norfolk-26oct2005.JPG
A view across a lake

Pensthorpe Natural Park is located in Pensthorpe, Norfolk, England and is approximately one mile from Fakenham and close to the A1067 road. The park covers 700 acres (280 ha). The River Wensum, which runs through the site, is a designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC). [1]

Kettlestone farm village in the United Kingdom

Kettlestone is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of 7.55 km2 (2.92 sq mi) and had a population of 177 in 85 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 197 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of North Norfolk.

Norfolk County of England

Norfolk is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the northwest, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. The county town is Norwich. With an area of 2,074 square miles (5,370 km2) and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile. Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000).

England Country in north-west Europe, part of the United Kingdom

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

Contents

Pensthorpe Conservation Trust (PCT) was formed in January 2003. It is a charitable trust that works closely with Pensthorpe Natural Park to showcase the importance of species and habitat conservation. The PCT works with partner organisations in national conservation programmes to conserve wetland and farmland bird species. These partnerships include Operation Turtle Dove, The Great Crane Project and re-introduction projects for red squirrels and corncrakes.

Red squirrel species of tree squirrel common throughout Eurasia

The red squirrel or Eurasian red squirrel is a species of tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus common throughout Eurasia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, omnivorous rodent.

History

The site was created as a nature reserve by Bill Makins in the 1980s, before being bought by Bill and Deb Jordan in 2003, of Jordans cereals. During excavations to create the lakes and wader scrapes, one million tons of aggregates were excavated. The work uncovered finds including a hand axe believed to date from 8000 BC. Tusks and the tooth from a woolly mammoth were also found. [2]

Hand axe Stone tool

A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually made from flint or chert. It is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods. Its technical name (biface) comes from the fact that the archetypical model is generally bifacial Lithic flake and almond-shaped (amygdaloidal). Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their longitudinal axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have a pointed end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic shape, and both faces have been knapped to remove the natural cortex, at least partially. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons.

Woolly mammoth An extinct species of mammoth from the Pleistocene epoch

The woolly mammoth is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the early Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with Mammuthus subplanifrons in the early Pliocene. The woolly mammoth diverged from the steppe mammoth about 400,000 years ago in East Asia. Its closest extant relative is the Asian elephant. The appearance and behaviour of this species are among the best studied of any prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses in Siberia and Alaska, as well as skeletons, teeth, stomach contents, dung, and depiction from life in prehistoric cave paintings. Mammoth remains had long been known in Asia before they became known to Europeans in the 17th century. The origin of these remains was long a matter of debate, and often explained as being remains of legendary creatures. The mammoth was identified as an extinct species of elephant by Georges Cuvier in 1796.

Media

The reserve was the location of the BBC programme Springwatch from May 2008 to 2010. [3] [4]

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.

<i>Springwatch</i> group of annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom

Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.

First broadcast in December 2013, the first episode of the BBC television series Great British Garden Revival was based in the reserve. [5]

<i>Great British Garden Revival</i> British documentary television series

Great British Garden Revival is a British documentary television series that was first broadcast on BBC Two on 9 December 2013. The series was presented by Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift, Rachel De Thame, James Wong, Tom Hart Dyke, Chris Beardshaw, Alys Fowler, Charlie Dimmock, Diarmuid Gavin, Christine Walkden, Toby Buckland, Sarah Raven and Matt James. Each episode shows two presenters focusing on an endangered part of gardens.

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Scottish Natural Heritage is the Scottish public body responsible for the country's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and scenic diversity. It advises the Scottish Government and acts as a government agent in the delivery of conservation designations, i.e. national nature reserves, local nature reserves, long distance routes, national parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas and the national scenic area.

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Bure Broads and Marshes

Bure Broads and Marshes is a 741.1-hectare (1,831-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Norwich in Norfolk. Most of it is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I and National Nature Reserve. Two areas are nature reserves managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Cockshoot Broad and Ranworth Broad. It is part of the Broadland Ramsar site and Special Protection Area and The Broads Special Area of Conservation,

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Upper Thurne Broads and Marshes

Upper Thurne Broads and Marshes is a 1,185.9-hectare (2,930-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Part of it is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, and it is in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is part of the Broadland Ramsar site and Special Protection Area, and The Broads Special Area of Conservation. Two areas, Hickling Broad and Martham Broad, are National Nature Reserves managed by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust.

References

  1. ↑ "SAC". jncc. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  2. ↑ BBC Norfolk video tour Retrieved 24 October 2008
  3. ↑ BBC news item Retrieved 10 June 2010
  4. ↑ Springwatch 2009 Retrieved 9 May 2009
  5. ↑ Great British Garden Revival Retrieved 28 September 2014

Coordinates: 52°49′19″N0°53′17″E / 52.822°N 0.8881°E / 52.822; 0.8881

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.


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