ABOVE: With curlews, scarlet ibis, flamingo, storks and avocets (opposite), Pensthorpe is one of the most amazing reserves in the country
25 years of natural wonder at Pensthorpe... Just outside Fakenham lies one of the country’s most amazing nature reserves. David Learner visits Pensthorpe to discover just a few reasons why it’s so popular. Pictures by Ian Ward.
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ensthorpe is a place where the natural world comes to life with a welcome that has its legions of admirers returning year after year. Two hundred acres of primeval Norfolk farmland has been skilfully converted and coaxed to provide something to do that’s always different, however many times you go back and whatever time of year. The woodland walks are just one part of this astonishing venue and whenever you visit it’s a place where the wildlife’s natural alarm clock is every bit as reliable as the one beside your bed. “As I was coming in this morning,” says Commercial Manager Mark Noble, “I heard a returning oyster catcher flying overhead. Spring’s on the way,
KLmagazine April 2013
and all it needed was the oyster catcher to remind me with its call. Listen – that’s all you have to do.” Early spring is showing aconites and snowdrops, and as Mark talks to us in the coolness of the dairy – one of the venue’s several places to soothe drowsy feet – it’s easy to remember that nature got here first. We’ve already watched the wildfowl, protected from the worst of winter in a specially crafted natural reserve – the Wader Aviary – that enables the visitor to get as close as possible without disturbing the stillness of the environment, somewhere that shows a respect on both sides for the tranquillity of the scene. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a twitcher with thirty years of
birdwatching behind you, or a four-year old on your first visit to Pensthorpe, the environment here is one that demands and receives respect that you rarely find.” Mark’s hope is that while the natural habitats for Pensthorpe’s vast array of wildlife are being diminished day by day in the outside world its human visitors will take away something that reminds them that we share this world with a million wild neighbours who just as much right to space as we do. For three years Pensthorpe played host to the BBC’s Springwatch programme – as a result visitor numbers rose and interest in the wilder world grew, and continues to grow. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s David Attenborough or Springwatch, TV
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