Catching up – Living Countryside Awards 2025

We revisit some of the winners of the 2025 Bedfordshire Living Countryside Award. Biggleswade Community Garden and Bloomin’ Well were both in the Grassroots to green shoot category, Clophill Lakes were winners in the Keep It Wild category.

Biggleswade Community Gardens and Bloomin’ Well in Clophill were both entries under our Grassroot and green shoots category of our Living Countryside Awards. They offer volunteering opportunities and local community involvement and, through gardening, aim to help people enjoy being outdoors, growing plants, being close to nature and help with a sense of well being.

How have things been growing since 2025 – Biggleswade Community Garden?

We were incredibly grateful to be recognised in both awards (Grassroots and green shoots highly commended & Bedfordshire Choice Runner Up). We have since continued to develop all of our community garden sites, creating new spaces, strengthening community connections, and growing even more opportunities for local people to get involved.

At the Northfields site, we have expanded our work with the surrounding community by introducing a free produce box, providing fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden and allotments for local residents. We have also installed a community library, where visitors can swap gardening books free of charge.

To keep everyone informed, we have added a new noticeboard featuring upcoming events, seasonal recipes from the garden, and all the latest garden news.

The site itself has continued to grow, with new planters, a beautiful new arch, and the completion of our fruit orchard. Local neighbours have added wonderful new artwork and new planter signs, all working to give the garden even more character.

At our Chestnut Avenue and Des Ball’s bulb bank site we have planted new trees and installed handcrafted signs made by a local carpenter, making it easier for visitors to discover and learn more about these community spaces.

Community Heritage

A proud achievement this past year was unveiling our community mural at the entrance to Biggleswade train station on May 2nd. The mural is a result of collaboration with the community and celebrates Biggleswade’s rich rail and market gardening heritage.

The unveiling was attended by the mayor, and the finished artwork has been warmly received as a permanent feature welcoming visitors to the town.

What’s next in Biggleswade?

The highlights of the past year are endless! We have been delighted to take part in Food Fairness discussions with the Central Bedfordshire council, welcome visits from the mayor, and taking a selfie with Spudman. We have participated in a range of community events such as ‘think as you shop’ and the Christmas lights switch-on. Our efforts were uplifted by a feature in the national magazine “WI Life” and a 1st place prize in the community category at the inaugural Biggleswade in Bloom event.

The future continues to look bright with more events such as our community Pride BBQ in partnership with Biggleswade Pride.

We also look forward to an exciting new initiative: the Bigg Garden. This collaborative project between us, Biggleswade Allotment Association and Biggleswade Town Council will transform an unused area of the allotment site into a growing space for all the community to enjoy.

Our true goal is to see an increase in community growing across Biggleswade, to host even more community events, and spread the word about the benefits of gardening for our health, wellbeing, and for the planet!

What has blossomed at Bloomin’ Well?

It has been a fantastic 12 months for Bloomin’ Well CIC, and receiving the CPRE Bedfordshire Living Countryside Award meant a great deal to us. It gave us recognition for all the hard work of our volunteers, members and supporters, and has helped raise awareness of the positive impact therapeutic horticulture has within our community.

Since receiving the award, we have achieved so much. We have built our wood workshop and are now seeking funding to insulate it, equip it with tools and machinery, and make the surrounding paths more accessible so even more people can benefit from using the space.

We have also nearly completed our sensory garden, with accessible paths designed to enable people with reduced mobility to enjoy the space safely and independently. Our new wildlife pond will be completed in time for our Open Day in September, when we will officially open the area.

A hive of activity

Over the past year we have run a successful Allotment Club, hanging basket workshops, talks to community groups such as Eggington WI, welcomed Duke of Edinburgh students and Shared Lives volunteers. We have held successful pop-up shops, and taken part in the Clophill Open Gardens weekend. We have also continued to grow our volunteer team, whose dedication has been instrumental in helping us develop the gardens.

Supporting the community

We are delighted to have recently received our first two referrals from Dimensions, with both individuals hopefully starting with us soon. Our Wednesday sessions for adults with learning difficulties and neurodiverse individuals continue to grow, while our free Sunday family sessions and adult wellbeing sessions are welcoming more members of the community each week.

We have been fortunate to secure additional grant funding over the past year, allowing us to continue improving the gardens and creating an inclusive, therapeutic environment where people can connect with nature, improve their wellbeing and develop new skills.

Clophill Lakes – The Ups and Downs

Winning the category and Bedfordshire Choice awards undoubtedly helped to spread awareness of the site within Bedfordshire and beyond. The reserve was brand new at the time, and this most likely resulted in some help towards donations and visitor numbers at a very difficult time.

News of our awards came just days after a devastating loss. On Saturday 1st August 2025 Clophill Lakes fell victim to a horrific arson attack which destroyed its viewing platform and 70m boardwalk. The boardwalk was more than just a path; it linked communities with nature, making it accessible for everyone, including those with limited mobility. Its loss deeply impacted conservation efforts, environmental education and the visitor experience at the reserve. Rebuilding it was vital to restoring the connection people have with nature in this beautiful setting.

Chief Executive Gill Welham launched a fundraising appeal to raise £100K to repair the damage and vowed the site would remain open undefeated by such a setback. By February 2026 we announced that work would soon begin to reconstruct the boardwalk and restore accessibility at the site between the two lakes.

From the Ashes

We marked our first anniversary with the new boardwalk official opening ceremony, attended by many of those who had donated cause. A commemorative plaque set among the charred remains of the surrounding habitat stated: “This boardwalk represents everyone whose support made its restoration possible.”

In addition to the restoration of the boardwalk, we have introduced a number of bird breeding initiatives (built by Jason Fathers of Wildlife Windows). These help endangered species struggling with habitat loss. Examples include the Swift Tower and the Tern Raft and Sand Martin nesting bank.

A number of Bird Hide Screens have also been created using locally-sourced Willow, grown and harvested by Wassledine in Gravenhurst. These screens allow visitors of all ages to view the wildlife on the lakes. Viewers remain hidden without disturbing the wildlife in their natural habitat. The screens have been planted using live Willow that will continue to grow, and be enjoyed for many years to come.

For visitors and nature

Last year the Greensand Trust’s innovative Youth Ranger programme for young people aged 13-18 was held at Clophill Lakes. The Rangers learnt new skills, grew in confidence, and carried out practical conservation tasks such as hedge planting, mammal surveying and coppicing. Their hard work and effort over the course of six months earned them a ‘Wild Place Guardian’ award as part of the John Muir award scheme.

The Trust regularly runs events and nature trails such as these. In the summer younger visitors could enjoy a Butterfly Trail, a Rubbing Trail and Bug Lab sessions. For adults we have evening Bat Walks, a Heritage Open Day at Cainhoe Castle, and a free walk to explore our nearby Sandy Smith Nature Reserve.

Looking ahead we will continue to do what we do: improving our visitor experience and looking to develop events and trails at the site. We aim to make more infrastructure improvements to the site and explore further ways to monitor wildlife at the reserve.

Read More

Find out more about all the winners of the 2025 Living Countryside Awards:

2025 Living Countryside Awards