One of the country’s most famous fens, Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, has welcomed the supply of timber boardwalks for the site's dipping ponds by independent timber and builders’ merchant Ridgeons.

Wicken Fen currently includes two dipping ponds, with a dipping platform made from softwood treated timber decking, joists and oak posts, supplied by Ridgeons. The platform, which is around the edge of one of the ponds, helps to provide a more stable and secure footing from which dippers can safely kneel and lean in closer to the water, in order to use nets to gather samples for identification.

Jem Slee, general manager at Ridgeons Forest Products, said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to support the National Trust in protecting and sharing this last fragment of Fenland. We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to supply the timber for the dipping ponds and look forward to working with Wicken Fen on a further project to construct a new boardwalk to the Old Tower Hide.”