About the reserve

The woodland at the reserve contains some very large ancient hazel trees and a good mix of typical understorey shrubs like spindle, blackthorn and sweet briar, a few ancient perry pear trees at the top of the glade, dead elm trees, together with some regenerating elm.

In the pasture there are patches of wild daffodils and areas of semi-improved pasture flanking the glade valley. This pasture contains a number of interesting plants, including dwarf thistle, adder's tongue, and autumn ladies tresses, as well as a varied selection of typical meadow butterflies.

Present Management

The ancient pasture is the most valuable habitat and used to be part of a much larger area of parkland. Encroaching trees, scrub and bramble are cut back and kept in check to ensure we retain as much area of grassland as possible and grazing helps to manage coarser grasses, keep bramble and scrub re-growth under control and create a varied sward for invertebrates.

We hope to start managing the old coppice area by removing some of the mature trees, particularly diseased ash, to allow more light in, and selective re-coppicing of hazel. The mature hazel stems which are of great value for invertebrates and nesting sites will be left as far as possible. The coppicing should encourage the woodland ground flora.

The plantation area at the top of the site, that was planted in around 1991 on historic parkland, will either be developed further as a woodland, through thinning and coppicing and protecting from deer browsing, OR it will be felled as part of a project with neighbouring land owners to restore the parkland landscape and grassland habitats. Discussions are ongoing about the best course of action here.

Finally, we are embarking on a project to restore the pond by re-lining it and are currently looking for funding to support this.