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Fencing – Paxton Pits Nature Reserve

Fencing work at one of Cambridgeshire’s premier nature sites.

Before

After

5

Information Boards Installed

1910 Metres

Of Clipex Fencing

192 Acres

Of Nature Reserve

Since the 1930s Paxton Pits has been a working gravel quarry. However, in the 1980s, as work came to a finish, the open pits were flooded to create lakes that you can visit at Paxton Pits Nature reserve today. The site covers 78 hectares and includes lakes, riverside, meadow, reedbed, scrub and woodland. Part of the site is still an active quarry and it’s owners have committed to the extension of the nature reserve over the next 10 years, from it’s current 192 acres to more than 700 acres.

Our team have been working on part of the expansion, fencing off tracks and footpaths that will open once the other work is complete. Fenced off areas will, in time, be grazed by livestock.

The team worked using Clipex fencing, which is expensive to install but has a guarantee of 30 years making it much more cost effective than timber posts which have a shorter life expectancy. Straining posts could be knocked in using our post knocker and the stock net was then tied on to the strainers and tensioned up tight. The intermediate posts were then installed so they didn’t come in line with the vertical wires on the stock net in order that the stock net could just clip into the intermediate posts. Unlike traditional fencing the Clipex system negates the need for traditional stapling.

This was the team’s first use of the Clipex fencing system and, although they found it harder to use on the packed gravel of the site, they feel that in general it’s an easy system that will be really long lasting. They would certainly recommend it’s use for future projects.

Find out more about Paxton Pits Nature Reserve here:

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Greenfields Countryside Limited