Ouse Washes

The Ouse Washes stretch for 32 kilometres between Earith and Downham Market, a long strip of wet grassland and shallow water lying between two straight rivers, the Old Bedford and the New Bedford. The land floods every winter, storing water from the Great Ouse and protecting downstream towns. In summer the water level drops, exposing grassland and pools that attract breeding birds. The site covers 2,514 hectares and is one of only two large regularly flooded washlands left in Britain. It holds international designations for birds and wetland wildlife, and parts are managed by the Wildlife Trust, the RSPB and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. The washes are internationally important for wintering and breeding wildfowl and waders. Thousands of teal, pintail, Eurasian wigeon, shoveler, pochard and Bewick’s swans gather here each year. The site also supports rich aquatic plants and animals, including dragonflies, damselflies and water voles. In 1656 Cornelius Vermuyden completed the drainage system that created the washland, and since then the peat has shrunk, making flooding more frequent. Peter Scott, founder of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, bought land here in 1967 to form the core of WWT Welney Wetland Centre. A visitor can walk along the banks and use the hides to watch birds at close range. The RSPB reserve at Welches Dam has eight hides, some with wheelchair access, while WWT Welney Wetland Centre has an observatory and seven hides, including two-person hides reached by steps. The grassland is dotted with reed canary-grass in the wettest places and creeping bent in the drier areas. The ditches and drains support rare water beetles and plants, and the landscape partnership scheme has improved access and community involvement.