Follow The Trail
This gentle 5 mile walk is a good introduction to the landscape of the area. The route passes several sites of interest for their wildlife or history. Some are shown on the new leaflet, which can be downloaded from the TMHT button below.
More detail is provided on information boards around the trail, five of which have recently been replaced with full colour versions.
Where it all begins
Starting at Flitwick Mill on the outskirts of Flitwick, the walk follows the River Flit, which used to power several mills in the area. The mill at Greenfield was demolished in 1971.
On Maggots Moor the course of the river is marked by meandering depressions, edged by trees growing on the old riverbanks. The Flit once flowed through the old pastures you cross on the way to Flitton.
At Flitton you’ll see the 500 year old church and the de Grey mausoleum, one of the most important in England. Access information is available at the church.
At the end of Brook Lane, the walk goes around Flitton Moor. Part of what was once a much larger wet moorland, it provides a mixture of habitats that support a wide range of wildlife.
The bridle path to Ruxox Farm takes you through an area where people have lived for over 6,000 years. The most obvious feature is the large “D” shaped moat marking the site of a Grange that once supplied farm produce to Dunstable Priory. Many Roman remains have been found in this area.
The final part of the walk takes in Flitwick Moor, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The swamp and wet woodland you see today hide a history of peat extraction and the ‘famous’ medicinal Flitwick Waters.
Flitton Moor
Flitton Moor is a Local Nature Reserve managed by Central Bedfordshire Council. It is a complex of ditches, ponds, grassland with wildflowers, and tree belts, including a small osier bed. The wetland habitats support a range of wildlife, including frogs and toads, and sticklebacks in the ditches. It is one of the most important dragon & damselfly sites in the county.
Flitwick Moor
On 24th April 1948 a meeting of the Bedfordshire Natural History Society was held on Flitwick Moor. They had invited Dr. (later Sir) Henry Godwin, from the Botany Department of Cambridge University, to discuss with them the possibility of an ecological survey being made to find out more about this important site. From then on Flitwick Moor was recognised as a rare site for the study of peat soil, plants with a tolerance of different depths of water and the forms of water life tolerant of the peat water. The Beds. and Hunts. Wildlife Trust took an interest in the site and since 1969 they have leased and directly managed an increasing area of the moor.
Ruxox Farm
In October 2002 David Sedgley of the Flitwick & District Heritage Group (FDHG) contacted the Greensand Trust (GST) about the moat at Ruxox. It had become overgrown with scrub and young oak trees and had had large amounts of rubbish dumped in it including plastics, vehicle wheels, pallets, scrap metal and irrigation pipes.
After discussions with Matthew O’Brien of County Farms, Patricia Roberts, Field Monument Warden for English Heritage, Martin Oake of Beds County Council and Alan McNicol, the tenant, a plan to restore the moat was formulated. Ten volunteer work parties were held later that winter to clear scrub from the north-east and eastern sections of the moat, and to remove that rubbish which was possible to clear by hand.