Nene Park

Nene Park is probably best known for the 500 acre country park at Ferry Meadows but it's really just a small part of what the park has to offer.

Nene Park stretches for 10 km along the beautiful valley of the River Nene immediately west of Peterborough, providing visitors with a variety of outdoor leisure experiences in an accessible network of open space and waterways, and a gateway to the open countryside.

Nene Park was originally conceived by the Peterborough Development Corporation, Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council in the late 1960s as a key part of the city's expansion. At that time there was little accessible countryside or open space around the city and very little in the way of formal outdoor facility provision.

2500 acres of land to the west of Peterborough was set aside to create Nene Park with the aim of improving the quality of life for Peterborough residents and visitors through providing high quality and accessible open spaces.

The park was set up for more formal facilities in the east, with Ferry Meadows Country Park as the visitor hub as its core, through to the quieter agricultural area with permissive off road routes for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders to explore the wider countryside.

Today the area is managed by Nene Park Trust, a financially independent charity, who have improved facilities such as new footpaths and cycle-way links, redesigning the main car park in Ferry Meadows, new toilet blocks, children's play areas and bird hides.

Areas of Nene Park have also been enhanced for their nature conservation value through a programme of woodland management, a mosaic of grassland habitats, the planting of new hedges and the laying of older ones, and the remodelling of the waderscrape.