The site is popular for a number of sports including sailing, angling, kayaking, canoeing,[2] and running, playing host to a parkrun.[8] Other facilities include play areas and a cafe.[9][10]
History
Anglo Saxons farmed the park's river meadows and called the area Whistley, where "wisc" means marshy meadows and "lei" means a woodland clearing.[11]
From the start of the 17th century, much of the area then belonged to Windsor Forest.[12]
The present-day cafe was originally a farmhouse built in 1904, which was called 'High Chimneys'.[13] In 1924 the area was sold to a farmer who renamed the farm after his home village of Dinton, near Aylesbury.[14]
The country park is part of the river Loddon's flood plain and so makes a good source of gravel, between 1969 and 1979 an extensive gravel extraction program was carried out. Much of the gravel was used for the M4 and the A329(M).[15]
In 1979 Dinton Pastures was opened to the public.[16] In 1992, part of the country park, Lavells Lake, was declared as a local nature reserve by Wokingham Borough Council.[3]
