Gamsey Wood

Wood Walton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Wood Walton lies approximately 6 miles (10 km) north of Huntingdon and just east of the A1. Wood Walton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England. The civil parish of Wood Walton is spread over a wide area, the main village dissected by the East Coast Main Line. To the north of the village in the area known as "Church End" stands the (now redundant) parish church of St Andrew, clearly visible from passing trains. The church was listed as one of Songs of Praise's favourite churches. The church dates from around 1200 and is layered in history: the south aisle was added in 1250, a clerestory was added in the 16th century, and it received a major remodelling in the 1850s. It is now in the keeping of the Friends of Friendless Churches.Further north are the earthworks of Woodwalton Castle, a motte-and-bailey castle which formerly held the manor of the parish. In 1886 a hoard of Roman coins was dug up in the parish. The village stands at the edge of Woodwalton Fen, an area of special scientific interest.

Woodwalton Marsh is a 0.8-hectare (2.0-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This grassland on calcareous clay has diverse flora, including red fescue, quaking grass, knapweed, cowslip, pepper saxifrage, green-winged orchid and the rare sulphur clover. There is also a wide variety of butterflies.There is access from New Road.

Woodwalton Castle was a small motte and bailey castle at Church End, the northern end of the parish of Woodwalton, Huntingdonshire. Located on a natural hillock, the earthworks of the castle still remain, with an outer moat enclosing a circular bailey with a central motte. A large dyke, apparently ancient, runs from the outer moat in a north-easterly direction. The site is a scheduled monument. It is unknown who built the castle or when it was constructed. It may have been erected by the de Bolbec family who held the manor of Woodwalton between 1086 and 1134, or by Ramsey Abbey which was granted the manor by Walter de Bolbec in 1134. Alternatively, it may have been built during The Anarchy, either by the sons of Aubrey de Senlis, who seized Woodwalton in 1143–4, or by Ernald, illegitimate son of Geoffrey de Mandeville, who moved his forces from Ramsey to Woodwalton after the death of his father in 1144.The existence of fishponds implies that the castle outlived the period of military conflict and developed as a residence controlling the northern part of the parish. The main settlement of Woodwalton village lies some 2 km to the south, and St Andrew's Church stands in isolation 600m south of the castle, possibly to serve both settlements.

St Andrew's Church is a redundant Anglican church standing in an isolated position in fields about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the north of the village of Woodwalton (often Wood Walton) in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, England. It is about 200 metres (219 yd) to the east of the East Coast Main Line and is visible from the passing trains. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Friends of Friendless Churches. As of 2010 it is not regularly open to visitors because its foundations are moving and it is unsafe.

Abbots Ripton railway station was a railway station on the East Coast Main Line in the English county of Cambridgeshire. Although trains still pass on the now electrified railway the station closed in 1958. Due to the position of the station in a cutting, it had two platforms which were staggered. These served the fast lines only, though the goods lines ran around the back of each.

Woodwalton Fen is a 209-hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the parish of Woodwalton, west of Ramsey in Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, England. It is a Ramsar wetland site of international importance, a National Nature Reserve, a Special Area of Conservation and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. The site is managed by Natural England.

Raveley Wood is a 5.6-hectare (14-acre) nature reserve south-west of Upwood in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.Trees in this wood include oak, ash and field maple, together with some elms, although many were killed by Dutch elm disease. Invertebrates include the rare white-spotted pinion moth, which depends on elms for food for its larvae, and white-letter hairstreak butterflies. The dead elms provide a habitat for a wide variety of fungi.There is access from Raveley Road, which runs west from the hamlet of Great Raveley.

Lady's Wood is a 7.1-hectare (18-acre) nature reserve west of Upwood in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.This wood was a traditional coppice, but many of the trees were cut down in the 1950s. Birds include blackcaps, fieldfares and green woodpeckers and there are invertebrates such as orange-tip butterflies and azure damselflies.There is access by a footpath from Bentley Close in Upwood.

Abbots Ripton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Abbots Ripton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being an historic county of England. Abbots Ripton lies approximately 4 miles (6 km) north of Huntingdon on the B1090. The parish occupied some 4,191 acres (1,696 ha) of land in 1801, which had reduced to 4,080 acres (1,651 ha) by 2011. The parish of Abbots Ripton is home to 305 residents (2011 census). The village is also notable as the location of the Abbots Ripton railway disaster in 1876 in which a Flying Scotsman train was wrecked during a blizzard. The disaster led to important safety improvements in railway signalling. The civil parish includes the nearby hamlet of Wennington, which lies one mile north of Abbots Ripton. Wennington has a population of about 60 people.

The Abbots Ripton rail disaster occurred on 21 January 1876 at Abbots Ripton, then in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, on the Great Northern Railway main line, previously thought to be exemplary for railway safety. In the accident, the Special Scotch Express train from Edinburgh to London was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train. An express travelling in the other direction then ran into the wreckage. The initial accident was caused by: over-reliance on signals and block working as allowing high-speed running even in adverse conditions systematic signal failure in the adverse conditions of that day due to a vulnerability to accumulation of snow and iceThe accident (and the subsequent inquiry into it) led to fundamental changes in British railway signalling practice.

Sawtry Abbey was a Cistercian abbey located between Sawtry and Woodwalton in Cambridgeshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1147 by Simon II de Senlis, Earl of Northampton, who was the grandson of Earl Waltheof and Judith, the niece of William the Conqueror who held the manor when the Domesday Survey was compiled. It is the only Cistercian abbey in the county.A colony of monks from Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire joined the new monastery, which was founded as an independent abbey. Due to its proximity to other monasteries, disputes over tithes and land with the abbots of Ramsey and Thorney often occurred during the 13th century.During the 14th century, the abbot of Sawtry was often recorded as being in debt, although the exact cause is unknown. Indeed, very few documents relating to the abbey survive. The abbey was worth less than £200 a year, and at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the whole establishment was disbanded before December 1536. Of the 12 monks and 22 conversi only the abbot, William Angell, received a pension of £10.Following the dissolution in 1536, the church, conventual buildings, gate-house, bell tower and even the old parish church of Sawtry Judith were demolished. Stone was removed from the site as late as the 19th century.Excavations took place between 1907 and 1913. The layout of most of the abbey was recovered. The church was cruciform with short transepts and choir. The cloisters were located to the south and to their East was an infirmary or Abbots lodging. A guest house was situated south-west of the cloister. The earthworks were resurveyed and are well preserved. The site has been scheduled since 1954.

Upwood Meadows is a 6 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Upwood in Cambridgeshire. It is also a National Nature Reserve and a Grade I Nature Conservation Review site. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.The site has three fields on calcareous clay with poor drainage, a type of pasture now very rare, and was described by Derek Ratcliffe as having "an outstandingly rich and diverse flora". Other habitats are mature hedgerows, ponds and scrub. One of the fields is agriculturally unimproved, and the evidence of medieval ridge and furrow still survives. Flowering plants include pepper saxifrage and green-winged orchid.There is access by a footpath from Bentley Close in Upwood.