World Wetlands Day 2026

Water, water everywhere, and how amazing it is!

The 2nd of February marks World Wetlands Day, a time to shout out how important wetlands are, both for wildlife and humans. Wetlands are so important that 40% of all life live or breed in them.

Wetlands are very diverse habitats, with one thing in common: water! Lakes, rivers, wet woodland, reedbeds, marshes, ditches, wet grassland are just some of the wetland habitats you will find here at Pensthorpe.

Pensthorpe’s relationship with wetlands is very clear and their stories are entwined. At the beginning: The River Wensum (both a nationally and internationally important chalk river), which meanders right through the middle of the site and has shaped the adjacent land use through the years (think Bronze Age settlements, Mediaeval villages, and Victorian railways).

Take a look at the lakes at Pensthorpe and you could be mistaken for thinking they had been there for millennia. In truth, the majority of these waterbodies were created around 50 years ago. Looking back even further than that (over 10,000 years in fact), during the last ice age, large ice sheets deposited sand and gravel across the valley floor. It was these alluvial deposits which were quarried in the 1970s and 80s and the lakes sensitively re-landscaped with shallow edges and islands. These lakes and the surrounding vegetation have matured and become important food and safety resources for a wide range of wildlife (over 1,600 species recorded so far!)

Grazing is synonymous with the Wensum Valley, and our Longhorn Cattle continue the long tradition of summer grazing in the marshes and meadows, but now solely for conservation.

The story continues and, as a nature reserve, Pensthorpe seeks to protect and enhance the wetland habitats here and share their stories with visitors. Regular monitoring of water quality, aquatic invertebrate life and water birds helps to guide any management.

The latest chapter includes Norfolk’s first wild Beaver in 400 years, which has found our wetland habitats and, as an “ecosystem engineer”, will help us to manage this magnificent landscape into the future…