Paradise Local Nature Reserve

Paradise

The River Cam and Paradise Local Nature Reserve

Type| Local Nature Reserve
Location| Newnham, Cambridge
OS grid| TL 446 572
Area| 2.2 hectares
Managed by| Cambridge City Council

Paradise is a 2.2 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Newnham, a suburb of Cambridge. It is owned and managed by Cambridge City Council.[1][2]

This site on the west bank of the River Cam has marshland and wet woodland with mature willows. Flora include butterbur, and the reserve has the uncommon musk beetle, which lays its eggs in the willows.[1]

There is access by a road from the junction of Newnham Road and Barton Road.

Today, the name Paradise designates the nature reserve adjoining Owlstone Croft, but formerly it embraced the whole area up to the Lammas Land. There were once tennis courts known as the Paradise Courts on the University Hockey Ground. This hockey ground, located at the junction of Barton Road and Grantchester Street, has since been developed for housing. References to Paradise go back a long way. The earliest mention of bathing in Cambridge records that in 1567 the son of Walter Haddon, while at King's College, was drowned "while washing himself in a Place in the river Cham called Paradise", and William Stukeley, the eighteenth century antiquary, when at Corpus College in 1704 wrote: "I used to frequent, among other lads, the river in Sheep's Green, and learnt to swim in Freshman's and Soph's Pools, as they are called, and sometimes in Paradise, reckoning it a Beneficial Exercise". And it was here, in 1811, that Byron's brilliant friend Matthews became entangled in weeds and was drowned. The larger area now called Owlstone Croft was formerly called Paradise Garden. In 1740 it was taken over by Mr Rowe, who had introduced into Cornwall a system of forcing early vegetables for the London market, and here he produced them in a scientific way. His son Richard became associated with a Dutch bulb grower, outstripped all competitors in the production of beautiful flowers, and invented the hyacinth glass for growing bulbs in water only.[3]

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## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Paradise". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
2. ^ "Map of Paradise". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
3. ^ The Cambridge Nobody Knows, 1977, F.A. Reeve, The Oleander Press

52°11′38″N 0°06′51″E﻿ / ﻿52.194°N 0.1141°E﻿ / 52.194; 0.1141

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* t
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Local nature reserves in Cambridgeshire

Cambridge|

* Barnwell East
* Barnwell West
* Beechwoods
* Bramblefields
* Byron's Pool
* Coldham's Common
* Limekiln Close and East Pit
* Logan's Meadow
* Nine Wells
* Paradise
* Sheep's Green and Coe Fen
* West Pit

East Cambridgeshire|

* Isleham
* Little Downham

Fenland|

* Lattersey Field
* Ring's End

Huntingdonshire|

* Little Paxton Pits
* Somersham

Peterborough|

* The Boardwalks
* Dogsthorpe Star Pit
* Eye Green
* Grimeshaw Wood
* Woodston Ponds

South Cambridgeshire|

* Kingston and Bourn Old Railway
* Mare Fen
* Melwood
* St Denis Church

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