More than 2,000 acres of land was set aside to form the Nene Park, an area of countryside stretching westward along the valley of the river Nene from the city centre to Wansford.

Ferry Meadows is at the heart of the Nene Park, with 500 acres of lakes, woodland, grassland and meadows.

The land was was handed over to the Nene Park Trust in 1988.

The trust is a charitable organisation and is not part of the council. It does not receive any council funding.

Most of the land was originally agricultural and as it was on the flood plain of the River Nene, it could not be developed.

West of Ferry Meadows the land is still mostly agricultural.

As part of the construction of the roads in and around Peterborough, more than five million tonnes of gravel was extracted from what are now the lakes at Ferry Meadows.

It was part of the planning process that these gravel pits would be used for this and the pits were carefully cut out to where the excavators knew they would find gravel.

Today, as well as being important leisure amenities, the lakes play an important role in helping to prevent other areas of the city from flooding, by bearing the brunt of the excess water themselves.

Visitor services officer, Chris Park, said: "I think hats off to the people who led it out and designed it. The development corporation didn't get everything right, but I think here they did."

Read our feature and watch video: Behind the scenes at Ferry Meadows.