Dinton Pastures Country Park

The park is 450 acres (180 ha) in size.[1] It has seven lakes, two rivers, three public bird hides, and meadows.[2] One of the lakes, Lavells Lake is designated as a local nature reserve.[3] The two rivers that flow through the park are the River Loddon and the Emm Brook.[4][5] The Museum of Berkshire Aviation and the headquarters of the British Entomological and Natural History Society are both located in the park.[6][7]

The site is popular for a number of sports including sailing, angling, kayaking, and canoeing.[2] Other facilities include play areas and a cafe.[8][9]

Anglo Saxons farmed the park's river meadows and called the area Whistley, where "wisc" means marshey meadows and "lei" means a woodland clearing.[10] From the start of the 17th century, much of the area then belonged to Windsor Forest.[11]

The present day cafe was originally a farmhouse built in 1904, which was called 'High Chimneys'.[12] In 1924 the area was sold to a farmer who renamed the farm after his home village of Dinton, near Aylesbury.[13]

The country park is part of the river Loddon's flood plain and so makes a good source of gravel, between 1969 and 1979 an extensive gravel extraction program was carried out. Much of the gravel was used for the M4 and the A329(M).[14]

In 1979 Dinton Pastures was opened to the public.[15] In 1992, part of the country park, Lavells Lake, was declared as a local nature reserve by Wokingham Borough Council.[3]

The site has the following fauna:[5][11][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]

The site has the following flora:[29][30][31]

• Media related to Dinton Pastures Country Park at Wikimedia Commons
• Wokingham Borough Council: Dinton Pastures Country Park
• Photo gallery featuring Dinton Pastures Carp