The National Trust's oldest nature reserve, a surviving scrap of undrained fen kept wet and open by a wind pump, konik ponies and cattle
Open to visitorsa National Trust place — check opening times and admission before you go
Before the great fens of East Anglia were drained for farmland, much of the region was wet peatland like this. Wicken Fen is a surviving fragment of that old landscape, and one of the oldest nature reserves in Britain — the National Trust began buying land here in 1899. A fen is low, waterlogged peatland, and keeping it wet takes work: a restored wooden wind pump lifts water back onto the ground, and konik ponies and cattle graze to stop the fen turning to scrub. Boardwalks and paths cross the reeds and open pools, which teem with dragonflies, warblers and wildfowl. Years of draining shrank the peat all around, so the fen now sits slightly higher than the farmland beyond, a rare patch of the old wild Cambridgeshire that has otherwise vanished. Wicken Windmill stands in the village a short way east, and the drainage engine at Stretham Old Engine tells the other side of the story.
