The Bingham Linear Park,
which starts at the Saxondale end of Nottingham Road and continues
south-east from there across the parish boundary to the River
Smite, is rapidly becoming the focus of the natural history
interest in the parish. The Park already supports a variety
of wildlife and, no doubt, this will increase and develop
in the future.
The Park follows the course of a dismantled railway line,
one of two lines that passed through Bingham before linking
together at Saxondale.
For information about the local railway history click on:
Bingham’s Railways
After removing the rails and sleepers, demolishing the bridge
over Nottingham Road and landscaping where the bridge had
been, the track was left undisturbed to the south-east of
the road. Then, in March 1977, Bingham Town Council approached
Nottingham County Council to purchase the old line from the
point where it crossed Nottingham Road south-eastwards to
the parish boundary. A nominal sale price of £10 was
agreed. Since then the line has been developed as the Linear
Park (sometimes called the Linear Walk), a recreational facility
for the people of Bingham. The Town Council planted a number
of trees and shrubs to augment the natural colonisation that
had taken place.
In 2000 the Friendship Tree,
a gift from the people of Wallenfels in Bavaria, twinned with
Bingham, was planted near the start of the Park.
In 2001 Bingham Town Council asked EMEC Ecology to prepare
a Management Plan for the Park continuing across the parish
boundary as far as the River Smite. The site had already been
designated a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC
no 2/970) due to the presence of grassland and scrub communities
of zoological and botanical interest. The habitats the site
provides include secondary woodland, mature trees, scrub and
grassland, occupying the former railway track bed and the
verges on either side. The woodland areas are mostly to the
west and the grassland is in the central and eastern sections.
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