Celebrating 10 years of the Floodplain Forest
2026 marks 10 years since the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve was created at Old Wolverton, occupying the former industrial gravel extaction site. Some visitors may remember the agricultural fields before the gravel extraction commenced.
Since 2007, The Parks Trust transformed 48 hectares of the valley into a network of interlinked lakes, shallow pools, scrapes, channels, gravel islands and other wetland features which provide the building blocks to return the area to what it might have looked like before the Bronze Age, more than 5000 years ago: a floodplain forest.
14,000 to 10,000 years ago: Early Human Activity
After the last Ice Age, the River Great Ouse would have been a wide braided river with multiple channels amongst islands of eroded sands and gravels.
Birch woodland was developing in a warming climate.
Wild animals such as elk, red deer and now extinct wild cattle (aurochs) roamed the landscape.
As the climate continued to warm, the early birch woodland developed into a mixed oak, lime and elm forest.
Tools and waste material, found amongst nearly 2,000 worked flints, indicate that flint-working was still happening.
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers had a very mobile lifestyle and the flint scatters, fire sites and animal remains found here are likely to be evidence of their temporary camps associated with forays to hunt aurochs and red deer.
The landscape continued to be densely wooded in the Neolithic period, but early farmers were beginning to clear the trees to grow crops.
The advent of farming saw dramatic landscape changes and this was reflected most clearly here by the construction of four Cursus monuments around 5,500-5,000 years ago.
These huge structures, comprising two parallel ditches and banks extending along the floodplain, would have occupied an open, treeless landscape and required many people to construct them.
Their purpose is not known, but the presence of these monuments made this a very important place in the landscape.
The pace of woodland clearance increased throughout the Bronze Age and the flooding and sedimentation became more frequent due to rapid run-off of water from deforested areas. Repeated floods gradually filled in the Cursus Monuments with silt and by the Middle Bronze Age, fields divided by ditches had been established across the site.
Although hunting was probably still important, aurochs were almost certainly extinct and farming was now the mainstay of the economy.
Shards of pottery found on site are evidence of settlement during this period, but by the later Bronze Age a lack of archaeological activity suggests that the area was too wet to be lived on.
Centuries of flooding now covered the floodplain with a deep layer of silt, which, in the absence of trees, had developed into fertile pasture reminiscent of the landscape that was here in the mid-20th Century.
Iron Age farmers used oxen (a bit like cows) to pull their wooden ploughs, which had iron tips on the end to cut through heavy soil.
A small scatter of worked flint blades found here date to this period. The hunter-gatherers who made them may have been some of the first people to occupy Britain following the last Ice Age.
Romans constructed trackways across the wet meadows.
Later, in the Middle Ages, monks established a medieval grange on the site of Manor Farm, from where they farmed and administered the surrounding land, and the medieval village of Old Wolverton developed and was subsequently abandoned.
The common thread throughout this period is that hay was cut and livestock grazed the flowery floodplain meadows in the summer before being moved to higher ground in the wet winter months.
From the mid-20th Century there has been significant change. Agricultural improvement schemes deepened and straightened the river, disconnecting it from its floodplain and, together with the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, destroyed much of the wildlife-rich floodplain habitat.
Modern agricultural changes and recent dramatic flood events due to climate change, and the earlier evolution of landscape has been The Parks Trust’s inspiration to create the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve.
Since 2007, The Parks Trust transformed 48 hectares of the valley into a network of interlinked lakes, shallow pools, scrapes, channels, gravel islands and other wetland features which provide the building blocks to return the area to what it might have looked like before the Bronze Age, more than 5000 years ago: a floodplain forest.
In addition to the wetland features, sections of riverbank and some areas of land have been lowered to reconnect the river to its floodplain.
Today, Floodplain Forest is a thriving nature reserve and one of the most popular parks in Milton Keynes.
It’s home to wintering wildfowl including teal, wigeon, gadwall and shoveler, and breeding waders such as lapwing and redshank, as well as otters, barn owls, grass snakes and dragonflies.
As the habitat matures, it will benefit a range of different species in the longer term, from waders to wet woodland specialists and an ever growing diversity of wetland wildlife.
Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve is still evolving and changing with every flood of the river and every plant which grows! It has been evolving and changing for the past 10 years and will do so for many years to come.
Our aim is for the reserve to grow organically and change dynamically with the river’s movements, encouraging new species to flourish and for the reserve to evolve from an open mosaic of lakes into a true floodplain forest with denser tree cover.
This might mean that wading and diving bird species choose to use our other nature reserves at Stony Stratford, Linford Lakes and Stonebridge, whilst Floodplain Forest supports more woodland species.
Head to our Floodplain Forest park page to find out more about what to expect including wildlife to spot, park facilities and accessibility information.
We're creating a community-led masterplan to celebrate and invest in the wetland arc parks along the Ouse Valley in Milton Keynes. Complete our survey to share your feedback and ideas for the future of this landscape.