page_title: Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve
section_title: Wartime use
hierarchical_section_title: Bedford Purlieus National Nature Reserve / Wartime use
caption_attribution_description: English: Leedsgate Farm, Bedford Purlieus Woods. The building in the centre background was the gym, cinema and chapel for RAF Kings Cliffe and was the last place that Glen Miller played before he disappeared.
context_page_description: Bedford Purlieus is a 211-hectare ancient woodland in Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. It is a national nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest owned and managed by the Forestry Commission. In Thornhaugh civil parish, 10 km south of Stamford and 14 km west of Peterborough, the wood is within the Peterborough unitary authority area of Cambridgeshire, and borders Northamptonshire. In Roman times it was an iron smelting centre, during the medieval period it was in the Royal Forest of Rockingham, and later it became part of the estates of the Duke of Bedford. Bedford Purlieus appears to have been continuously wooded at least from Roman times, and probably since the ice receded. The woodland may have the richest range of vascular plants of any English lowland wood. It acquired particular significance in the 1970s as an early subject for the historical approach to ecology and woodland management.
context_section_description: During the Second World War Bedford Purlieus woods were used in conjunction with RAF Kings Cliffe air base, south of the woods. The airmen's living accommodation was dispersed around the woods to reduce the risk of being hit in the event of an air raid. Various foundations still remain. The buildings within the St John's Wood compartment, now Leedsgate Farm, included the theatre, gym and chapel for the airbase.
caption: Leedsgate Farm, originally part of St John's Wood, and used by the RAF Kings Cliffe airbase during WW2
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