As of 2024, the development of the town is well underway and is still years away from being completed, but when it is, it will contain around 10,000 homes, housing 25,000 people, and will be the second largest town in the whole of Cambridgeshire. It will fill all of the land between the villages of Longstanton to Oakington. The land it occupies was partly agricultural and archaeological investigations have revealed that the area contained an Iron Age settlement that was inhabited through the late Roman period.
The majority of the land was previously home to a Royal Air Force base called 'RAF Oakington'. Construction of the base began in 1939 and post-Second World War, the RAF used it as an advanced flying training school. When the school closed at the end of 1974, it became a British Army barracks until the late 1990s. Its final use was as Oakington Immigration Reception Centre, which closed in 2010. Work on creating Northstowe started in 2014 and the first residents moved in in 2017.
On the north-eastern border of the town there are three lakes, and in 2022 a competition was held to name them. The two southernmost lakes are owned by Homes England, the non-departmental public body that funds and manages the whole development. They have been named Unity Lake, to reflect the community coming together, and Halcyon Mere, which takes its name from the Halcyon bird and symbolises the lake's natural tranquillity. The northernmost lake was named Bug Hunter Waters, and this reflects the winner's (a mother and her 4-year old son) joy of catching bugs at the lake.
Bug Hunter Waters, also known as Northstowe Waterpark, is owned by Anglian Water and is used as a balancing facility to help to manage surface water run-off and is key to ensuring the local area, including roads and homes are protected from flooding. Even though it looks like a simple lake, there is apparently a fair amount of technology installed beneath the surface. This means the lake itself cannot be used for recreation purposes, and is left purely for wildlife. There is a pathway around the lake that provides a scenic route where residents can enjoy a stroll while admiring the picturesque view.
On 16 June 2024 the waterpark became home to a free, weekly, timed 5 kilometre event called Bug Hunter Waters parkrun. It is open to all abilities including those who wish to walk, and also to wheelchair users. People running or walking with buggies and dogs are also welcome, but dog owners should familiarise themselves with parkrun's policy on participating with a dog. Participants just need to register for free in advance and ensure they have scannable version of their personal barcode (can be used at any parkrun worldwide) available for scanning at the end. It is also an ideal opportunity for anybody that would like to become involved as a regular or occasional volunteer. We visited Northstowe on 24 August 2024 and took part in event number 11.
For the majority of non-locals, travel to the venue will involve the Longstanton Park & Ride which is located to the west of the venue. If using public transport, the only option that gets you all the way to the venue is a bus. However if you are travelling from further afield using national rail, it is possible to head to Cambridge railway station and complete the journey using The Busway Route A, or Cambridge North railway station and use The Busway Route B. For most of its route The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway uses the path of the former Cambridge to St Ives railway line where the buses are guided along the road by using a special kerbed guidance system to steer the bus. With a total length of 25km, it is the longest guided busway in the world. The bus station is also served by the number 5 and 5A buses.
The park & ride contains a car park which can accommodate 350 vehicles and parking is free-of-charge for up-to 18 hours. This is the official place to park for the parkrun and doing so has been fully endorsed by Cambridgeshire County Council. The only request is that those attending parkrun use the part of the car park that is furthest away from the Busway station - there were signs and a car park marshal in place when we visited. There may be other local places where vehicles can be parked, but it is important that parkrun participants stick to the agreed parking arrangement and do not park on the residential streets. The park and ride also has loads of bicycle parking, with some of it being covered, plus there are a further two bicycle racks within the park next to the start/finish area. Lastly, there are also toilet facilities at the park & ride which should be open from 7am, but please note there are no further toilet facilities within the park itself.
The park can be accessed directly from the park & ride car park and when we visited there was a 'Caution Runners' sign placed at the gate - making it easy to identify. The walk from the entry point to the parkrun meeting area is about 850 metres, so it is important to leave enough time to cover the distance. All you need to do is follow the tarmac footpath until reaching the triangular grass area next to the lake's bridge, where you will find all the usual parkrun paraphernalia and plenty of volunteers milling around. I used my Garmin to record the walk from the car to the meeting point via the toilets so please feel free to take a look if you think it would be useful.
The briefings both take place on this triangular piece of grass and the participants are then asked to move across to the start area in small seeded groups. The first to head over are the walkers (along with the tail walker and any official parkwalkers), and they are followed by the rest of the field in time order with those expecting to complete the course in under 20 minutes heading over last. This system appears to work really well and is very useful given that the start area is only the width of a regular footpath with no usable over-spill (the grass next to the path is on a steep bank).
The parkrun takes place over a two-lap hourglass-style course which is negotiated in a clockwise direction. It is mostly pancake flat but there are some very small changes in elevation at some points around the course - my GPS data reported a total of 5 metres of elevation change over the full 5 kilometres. Underfoot is approximately a 50-50 split between ultra smooth tarmac paths and slightly gravelly country park-style paths (it's probably a hoggin path), so I'd say it will be absolutely fine in road shoes in all conditions. The only section that leaves the paths is the finish line which is set up on the adjacent grass area.
From the start the course initially heads north but gradually turns to head towards the western end of the park, which most people would have already walked along during the walk from the Park&Ride. With this whole area being brand new, the tarmac is crisp, flat and simply a pleasure to run, walk or roll on, and at this point the path is mostly bordered by areas of grass with plenty of young trees dotted along the route. Incidentally, this path was home to a large number of slugs (brought out by the rain, no doubt) and the event definitely felt more like 'Slug Hunter Waters parkrun'. At the very end of the path, the course effectively does a u-turn when it reaches the 'Busway Hairpin', and transfers onto the gravelly path which runs alongside the Busway.
You can't really see the guided busway due to the bushes that line the northern border of the park, but every now and then you may hear a bus wooshing along to the left. This path is split into two sections - the first is mostly straight and is basically parallel to the tarmac path, but rises to a slightly higher elevation. The gravelly bit also feels a bit more natural as it is bordered by short bushes and shrubs. The end of the first section of gravel path is where the course's hourglass shape is formed as the path drops down and rejoins the tarmac for a split second. The second section of gravelly footpath continues the nature theme as it meanders its way along the northern side of Bug Hunters Lake itself.
At the most easterly point of the course the gravelly path has a slight climb and the route returns to tarmac. This path leads down to the most southerly point of the course and then back around to the original start area. However the course takes a quick diversion back onto gravel just before reaching the start area (you don't pass back through the start area), and this then completes the lap. Once the second lap has been completed, participants can then enter the finish funnel which is located on the original triangle of grass where the briefings are held. The barcode scanning takes place just after the finish and once the tail walker crosses the line the team heads over to Northstowe Tap and Social for the post-event refreshments and social gathering. As mentioned above, I recorded the course with my Garmin so feel free to take a look at the GPS data on Strava. There is also a Relive course fly-by video that can be viewed on YouTube.
We visited on the day that Storm Lilan hit the UK, and the official results page shows the number of finishers was 187 at event 11, which was considerably lower than the number of attendees present in the few events prior to our visit. At the time of writing the event had been averaging attendances in the mid-to-high 200's, with around 50% of the field being tourists. Considering the event is only 11 weeks old, the percentage of tourists is still high and considering the event's quirky name, I expect this will remain a popular tourist destination. I should mention that the course was very well marked out with signs and cones placed in all the right places. Overall it is generally a pretty straight-forward course to follow and providing you've had a look at the course map it would be fairly simple to navigate even without the signs. There were also a number of marshals (I think there were 7) out on the course meaning it was never too far between friendly faces.
As far as cancellations are concerned, there is an annual event called Northstowe Festival of Running which started in 2020 as a virtual race, but since 2021 has used the park's paths as part of their race routes so this means the parkrun cannot take place. The festival is usually held at the beginning of September, but the 2024 event fell on the last day of August. I'm not currently aware of any other events that would result in the parkrun cancelling, but I will update this write-up should any come to light. Given a large amount of the course is on tarmac, snow and ice are the obvious weather conditions that could cause a last-minute weather-related cancellation.
For post-parkrun activities the obvious one would be to explore the waterpark and try to find some of those wonderful bugs which give the lake its name. Even after only being established for a short period I hear it is home to lots of them including catepillars, beetles, and maybe even some dragonflies. Sadly there's not really anything else to do in Northstowe itself and the town came in for some criticism in 2023 when it was reported in the press that it had no shops, cafes or GPs. There were plans for a heritage centre but my understanding is this idea was scrapped in September 2023 when the contractor went bust.
However the Busway connects directly to the centre of Huntingdon, St. Ives and Cambridge so there are three easy-to-reach places which also give you the perfect reason for taking a ride on the world's longest guided busway. Although we would have loved to have taken a ride into Cambridge, we didn't have the time to do so on this occasion, so that day-out remains on our post-parkrun to-do list for now. Lastly, I'd just like to extend a huge thank you to all of the volunteers that helped to put the event on.
Related Links:
- Bug Hunter Waters parkrun GPS data (24 August 2024 / event 11)
- The Relive course fly-by video (24 August 2024 / event 11)
- The Cambridgeshire parkrun venues (blog7t page)
- Longstanton Park&Ride to the parkrun meeting point GPS data (24 August 2024)
