New film promotes beautiful Greensand Country

Thanks to funding from a local housebuilder, the Greensand Country Landscape Partnership has launched a new film, utilising stunning drone footage, promoting the rich and diverse landscape across the region.

Greensand Country covers 40 miles of scenic landscape, which is defined by the Greensand Ridge and reaches three neighbouring counties, from Cambridgeshire in the East, across Bedfordshire and to Buckinghamshire in the West. The area’s unique landscape and geology results in a place of rich natural and cultural heritage.

This mixture of historic parkland, estate villages and former industry, together with the patchwork of habitats along the Greensand Ridge itself have been captured in a drone video project showing the unique ‘sense of place’ that is cherished by residents and visitors today.

The Greensand Country Landscape Partnership works to protect, enrich and promote this special area of England, and by working collaboratively with a number of partners, this short film gives a small snippet of some of the stunning landscapes, ecology, and historic architecture the landscape has to offer.

It gives stunning views of historic sites and towns, along with the parkland, ancient woodland, wetland and heathland that surrounds the Greensand Ridge. Some of the drone images will also be included in a digital leaflet that aims to make the landscape of Greensand Country more accessible to new visitors.

Writer and director, Stephanie Kitchiner, comments, “It has been very rewarding to work with a diverse range of Greensand Country partners, charter members, local authorities and local people, to capture on camera some of the fantastic landscape, wildlife, and sites of historic and cultural interest available in Greensand Country. Thanks to all those involved in the collaboration.”

The film was funded by Mulberry Homes and the footage has been filmed and edited by aerial imaging specialists Sky Revolutions, who are the first drone company to go fully carbon neutral.

Overall, the drone and handheld cameras have captured video and images of the Leighton Buzzard Market Cross, Leighton Buzzard All Saints Church, Gamlingay parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Gamlingay Eco-Hub, the Emplins sixteenth century Hall House, Millbridge Brook Meadows, Rushmere Country Park, Flitwick Moor and Folly Wood, The Alameda and Great Park in Ampthill, Cooper’s Hill, St Mary’s Old Church in Clophill, Warden Abbey Vineyard, Moggerhanger Park, and Portobello Farm in Sutton. Extra footage was kindly supplied by Wrest Park, Bedford Estates, Shuttleworth House and the Swiss Garden, and RSPB The Lodge in Sandy. All footage was then combined, with a voiceover and music, to create a film that explores and celebrates different aspects of the Greensand Country landscape.

Watch the video at https://youtu.be/RmTkAwuYQjg and discover more about Greensand Country at www.greensandcountry.com