Following on from last week’s trip to Crane Park parkrun we returned to the London Borough of Hounslow to visit another of its parks, Bedfont Lakes Country Park, home to Bedfont Lakes parkrun as we seek to complete all the London parkruns (parkruns inside the M25).
Previously known as the Fawn’s Manor Farm, when owned by the Duke of St Albans, it wasn’t until the 250 acres of land was secured by the Rutland Group in 1988, that work commenced to create the largest park built in London in the 20th Century from what was as a contaminated landfill site and described as ‘...the largest pile of rubbish in Europe’; The Rutland Group Ltd. It has won numerous environmental awards and is a site of Metropolitan Importance. It was donated to Hounslow Council in 1991 with an endowment fund to maintain it for perpetuity. It is also home to Bedfont Lakes parkrun which commenced on 09/05/2009.
At the Clockhouse Lane entrance to the park is a visitor centre with information about all the attractions, toilets and directions to where the parkrun starts.
The start is situated in the centre of the park at the top of one of the hills. You can look out and see panoramic never-ending tree lines and glimpses of the wildflower meadows, wetlands and lakes. You can’t see trains or cars but you can see planes as Heathrow airport is very nearby. This enabled fellow tourists Kirsty and Jill Dinsmore to fly in from Mauritius to attend the event before heading back to the airport to catch their flight home to Scotland #amazing!
We were asked to seed ourselves by the time we expected to finish. We were counted down and then headed off for two anti-clockwise laps of this incredible country park. The seeding meant no congestion on the initial downhill as the path then snaked up a hill and around a cluster of trees. Previous heavy rainfall meant there were puddles all around but the paths were wide enabling a splash-free run for me 🙂
This is a breathtaking undulating run on sandy trail paths, going past two lakes and treelines that extend and extend and extend. Birds dart around and this has to be one of the best parkruns I’ve done, it finished frustratingly too quickly and that had nothing to do with my speed.
I spoke with the very friendly volunteer team and cheered the other participants in, seeing people duke it out to the finish funnel on the long curved uphill finish.
Along with lakes, wetlands, woodlands, wildflower meadows and public nature reserve, the exosystem contains 156 bird species, 20 types of mammals and 97 types of fungi, there is plenty to see and do so you can make a day of your parkrun trip; https://www.goparks.london/park/bedfont-lakes-country-park/
We left feeling rejuvenated.
Next week I’ll be returning to my home parkrun at Burgess Park for a run and a spot of volunteering.
Happy running
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