The plan provided a basis for an ecological management of Bedford Purlieus within commercial constraints. In 1975 a major symposium was held to consider the management of Bedford Purlieus. The estate totalled including of woodland, mainly accounted for by Bedford Purlieus. The name changed when the Dukes of Bedford took ownership renaming it Bedford Purlieus. Bedford Purlieus has been owned by the Forestry Commission since 1933. Bedford Purlieus was declared a national nature reserve (NNR) in 2000. Bedford Purlieus is a ancient woodland in Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. Unlike in a coppice-with-standards rotation, Bedford Purlieus woodland is much more even in age.