Peakirk Bird Sanctuary. Do you recognise anyone pictured?Peakirk Bird Sanctuary. Do you recognise anyone pictured?
Peakirk Bird Sanctuary. Do you recognise anyone pictured?

Looking Back: Do you remember bird park near Peterborough?

For many years the Peakirk Wildfowl Trust was one of the Peterborough area’s most popular attractions.

The 14-acre site was opened in April 1957 by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester.

It was renamed the Peakirk Waterfowl Gardens in 1991.

The site was originally a natural spring, planted with osier beds and then used as gravel workings, dug in 1840s for use on the Lincolnshire Loop railway line.

In 1956 the site was bought by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and work started to transform it.

Visitor numbers averaged 30-40,000 per year.

There were 700 water birds spanning 108 different species of which five were threatened with extinction.

By the mid 70s there were 64,000 paying visitors, 8,000 of which were schoolchildren.

Visitor numbers fell and in 1990 the site was sold.

The Peterborough Agricultural Society leased the site in 1991 for six years, but it was uneconomical and closed in December 2001 with the birds rehomed.

Here are some pictures from its heyday.

The site was originally a natural spring, planted with osier beds and then used as gravel workings, dug in 1840s for use on the Lincolnshire Loop railway line.

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