Looking back: Summer at Ferry Meadows in the 1970s and '80s

The end of the summer is nearly in sight – after plenty of blue skies and sunshine in 2025.

Many families will have spent plenty of time at Ferry Meadows this year – the park really is a jewel in Peterborough’s crown.

While many people assume it must have always been this way, the truth is Ferry Meadows is actually one of the city’s more recent large-scale leisure projects. Indeed, the park itself didn’t open until 1978.

Unsurprisingly, the three-and-a half-mile long expanse was an immediate hit with the public when the gates did finally open. Peterborians loved the fact that they had such a pleasant, attractive and ecological diverse green area to explore and enjoy, effectively right on their doorstep.

To many, those first few years the park was open – from the late 1970s to the mid-to-late 1980s – still seem like something of a golden age. Ask your parents or grandparents about the Ferry Meadows beach and chances are they’ll come over a little misty-eyed. If you were lucky enough to be one of those parents or grandparents then today’s Looking Back will almost certainly make your nostalgia goosebumps rise with a passion. If you weren’t, well –here’s your chance to see what you missed out on.