Biggleswade & Sandy
These towns in the heart of market garden country have delicious fresh treats in store. It’s traditional here to provide excellent produce for all to enjoy, Biggleswade’s market days go back to 1227 and by 1631 it boasted five annual fairs.
When the River Ivel became navigable in 1758 maltings abounded and in 1850 the railway allowed local market gardeners to feed London.
Head off for some fresh air on the riverside Kingfisher Way, or a circular walk to build up an appetite. The countryside is green and pleasant, the churches and inns historic, and the ale is refreshingly real, of course.
Top tip
Travel by train and you’ll get in free at the RSPB Lodge Nature Reserve in Sandy.
Shopping time
The Saturday market and the monthly farmers’ market are a must in Biggleswade. You’ll find everything you need around the old market square with specialist shops trading alongside traditional producers. Sandy has a nice clutch of shops too and a splendid artisan bakers.
A good range of shops, cafés and restaurants are now sporting the ‘Tastes of Bedfordshire’ mark - the sure sign of great quality local produce being sold and served.
Things to do
Sandy’s RSPB Reserve invites you to walk on wood and heathland trails, peer out from the observation hides and enjoy organically managed formal gardens. There are Woodpeckers to be spotted, Nuthatches to watch climbing and maybe even a Natterjack Toad or two.
Nearby Potton Wood is also a site of special scientific interest. Moggerhanger Park is an ocean of bluebells in Garden Wood during early February and the acres around this fine Georgian house were moulded by Humphry Repton’s designs. Let the garden path lead you into a world of Victorian whimsy in Old Warden.
The Swiss Garden charms with follies and ponds, mountains and valleys of planting; nature is being played with here and seems to be enjoying it! Best take relations with the natural world more seriously next door at the Birds of Prey Centre.
Learning to handle an owl will leave you wide-eyed, then there’s the thrill of a hawk walk, and the top prize of a session with a Golden Eagle.
Still in Old Warden the Shuttleworth Collection is all about winged flight, but without the feathers, you will find a Tiger Moth, Flying Flea and Electric Wren. Enjoy a real celebration of the first one hundred years of flight.
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