Stockgrove Country Park, £2.00 to park just been introduced' is located on the Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

/Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

 border in the village of Heath and Reach

Heath and Reach

Heath and Reach is a village, civil parish, and political ward near the Chiltern Hills in Bedfordshire. It is about two miles north of Leighton Buzzard and three miles south of Woburn and adjoins the county boundary with Buckinghamshire....

 between Leighton Buzzard

Leighton Buzzard

-Lower schools:*Beaudesert Lower School - Apennine Way*Clipstone Brook Lower School - Brooklands Drive*Greenleas Lower School - Derwent Road*Dovery Down Lower School - Heath Road*Heathwood Lower School - Heath Road*Leedon Lower School - Highfield Road...

 and Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, with easy access from the A5. Now managed by the Greensand Trust and totalling more than 80 acres (323,748.8 m²), the park is formed from parts of two much larger estates at nearby Stockgrove, dating back to before 1784. The hand-dug lake features the remains of a boathouse

Boathouse

A boathouse is a building especially designed for the storage of boats, normally smaller craft for sports or leisure use. These are typically located on open water, such as on a river. Often the boats stored are rowing boats...

 that burned down in 1963 - only its brick arches are left. Mandarin Duck

Mandarin Duck

The Mandarin Duck , or just Mandarin, is a medium-sized perching duck, closely related to the North American Wood Duck. It is 41–49 cm long with a 65–75 cm wingspan.-Description:...

s took up residence in 1997 and have bred there ever since. Some of the neighbouring oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

 woodland is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

.

External links

• Greensand Trust: Stockgrove Country Park
• Heath and Reach village website (includes A Brief History of the Stockgrove Estate)
• High Ash: The Stockgrove Estate - A Brief History of the Estate
• Bedfordshire Bat Group: Stockgrove Country Park Survey