Christopher Taylor applied the term Mid Anglia to include most of the modern shire lands of Bedford, Cambridge and Northampton. These lands more or less formed the heartland of the ancient Saxon kingdom of the Middle Angles There is no familiar name attached to this part of England that is all too often traversed by people going elsewhere. It is also an ill-defined topographical area sandwiched between the northern termini of the Cotswolds and Chilterns, and the beginning of the Fens. It spans watersheds and catchments of the four major English rivers; Trent, Welland, Great Ouse and Thames

Mid Anglia is broadly defined topographically in Fig 1 as a polygon with its corners on Leicester (L), Peterborough (P), Cambridge (C), Hertford (H) and Oxford (O). It encloses an area about 100km north to south and 80 km east to west, and contains examples of the landscapes of 16 natural areas.

The region is centred on the West Anglian Plain natural area and the four natural areas within it; Midland Clay Pastures, Rockingham Forest, Yardley-Whittlewood Ridge and Bedfordshire Greensand Ridge. The streams and rivers draining the heartland feed the Trent to the north, the Welland and Ouse to the east, and the Thames to the south. The watershed straddles the boundaries of the local authorities of Peterborough (P), Cambridgeshire (Cambs), Bedfordshire (Beds), Buckinghamshire (Bucks), Milton Keynes (MK) and Northamptonshire (Northants).

One of the visions behind the UK strategies for sustainable development is the boost to concerted action that comes from the sharing of ideas and outcomes of conservation management between organisations and communities. Nowhere could this be better exemplified than in the region that defines Mid Anglia. It comprises several natural areas that have been delineated to provide a landscape framework for conservation, which cut across several local authority boundaries. The national strategy for biodiversity is based on local authorities as the reference points for the production of local biodiversity actions plans. Mid Anglia therefore provides an ideal arena for comparing different approaches to the national imperative of sustainability.

The starting point is to define the areas and their geology, then compare cross- authority examples of biodiversity action plans and their local outcomes at the level of nature sites and communities.