Fletton Brick Pits
by George Walthew
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PBC Where to Watch Birds Fletton Brick Pits by George Walthew |
| Sightings for past week: | All sightings | Excluding Common | Rare & Scarce |
| Sightings for past month: | All sightings | Excluding Common | Rare & Scarce |
| Sightings for past year: | All sightings | Excluding Common | Rare & Scarce |
The excavation of clay for brick making has been taking place south of the village of Fletton since the turn of the century and there were up to 19 brick works operating on the site in the early 1900’s. There are now no operational works left after the recent closure of the last of these, Orton Brick Works.
At it’s maximum the area of clay pits stretched from Fletton in the north to Yaxley in the south, and from Stanground in the east to within 2-km of the A1 in the west. Most of these pits are now gone, mostly filled with fly-ash (pulverised fuel ash) from the electricity generating industry, and now undergoing development for housing or industry or reclaimed for agriculture pending development.
A few pits have been left for amenity in the new developments. These include Orton Brick Pit and Hampton Lakes. The rest are described here.
Map of the areaThis large pit is immediately south of Fletton High Street and is the area of water visible from the Fletton Parkway at Junction 4. It still has areas of rough ground associated with it along with some thorn thickets. It’s main interest lies in the several hundred Coot which winter on it but it also holds small numbers of Duck and Grebes as well as Kingfisher. It has turned up some of the rarer Grebes in the past and still has potential to produce good birds for the regular watcher.
It is most easily accessed from Fleet Way, opposite Lloyds TSB Bank, on Fletton High Street. There is plenty of parking here and you can walk over a grass field and through a gap in the tall hedge. A footpath runs all the way round the pit.
This small pit once had a pumphouse in the bottom but is now flooded. It lies just south of the Fletton Parkway. It is not easily accessible but it could be visited on a walk around Fletton Pit. A track runs due south from Fletton on the west side of the Fletton Pit and this passes under the parkway. The pit is on your right a couple of hundred yards further along. Despite it’s small size it can hold good numbers of Little Grebe and sometimes has some good duck on it.
There are two small pits here as well as some ponds, grassland and thorn thickets. It is now a country park. It is not heavily used by wildfowl but has had some good Ducks in the past.
Access is straight forward. Drive south along the B1091 to Farcet and turn right after the church into Haddon Way. At the end of the road is a car park by the electricity transformer. To get to the lakes take the path along the side of the transformer.
Access is along the A15 London Road from Peterborough or along Phorpres Way from the parkway. Just north of the bridge carrying the parkway over London Road, a lane leads west along the side of the parkway to the nature reserve carpark at the end. Paths from here go around the nature reserve. If you take the path which continues along beside the parkway you will come to another path branching right. The main pit lies beyond the chainlink fence and through the trees. If you continue to the end of this path, a gap in the fence and an unofficial path continues along the side of this pit. It is just about possible to view the pit through the trees!
Map of the area