The Grange Estate

This 300 acre estate, at the heart of the River Valley Park was bought by the Marston Vale Trust in spring 2006.

The land has had a recent history marked by dramatic change. It was known  locally as ’Matchstick Wood’ after the plantations of poplars, created by  Bryant & May in the middle of the 20thC and designed for use in the match industry. These trees reached maturity, but were not used for that purpose since the industry subsequently moved to Scandinavia.

In the 1980's, much of the area was quarried for sand and gravel, an activity that caused a great deal of disturbance, much of which has been restored to agriculture and lakes. There remains the Lafarge mineral processing plant and part of the haul road to the A603, both of which could be in place until 2030. The plant will continue to take materials from surrounding quarries for much of this time.

The heart of the River Valley Park

The fact that the Grange Estate is now owned by the Marston Vale Trust means that we can say with a great deal of certainty that this will form one of the first parts of the new park. What it eventually looks like and what you will be able to do there in the future are questions have been decided in principle by the publication of the framework April 2008, but still remain to be put into practice. As a first step, the Trust has created a 3km multi-user route around the south bank of the River Great Ouse, and built a new bridge over the Elstow Brook at the confluence of the two rivers.

The BRVP Framework document is available to download from the BRVP home page