Dunstable and Whipsnade Downs Dunstable and Whipsnade Downs Dunstable and Whipsnade Downs is a 73.4 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dunstable in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1987 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. It is in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of it is owned by the National Trust. Dunstable Downs is the highest point in the east of England, and it has five thousand year old burial mounds and a medieval rabbit warren. The site is a 3 kilometre long steep escarpment between
Joan Beauchamp Procter The track she followed still exists within Whipsnade Zoo, named in her memory, as "Miss Joan’s Ride". Joan Procter's involvement with large, potentially dangerous animals continued in her final years. At Whipsnade she had a close encounter with an escaped brown bear, which she captured by enticing it with some honey before shutting it in a lavatory. Towards the end of her life, when she could only get around the grounds of London Zoo in an electric wheelchair, she was still often accompanied by a 3 metre long Komodo dragon on a leash. Although seriously ill, she continued to work