Upwood Meadows

Designated a National Nature Reserve for its floristic diversity, Upwood is awash with life. The greatest display is in Bentley meadow where medieval ridge-and-furrow and the many ant hills provide differing microhabitats for plants and invertebrates. Here plants including cowslip, green-winged orchid, saw-wort, dropwort, sulphur clover and dyer's greenweed provide summer-long colour and nectar sources for bees and butterflies.

The surrounding mature hedgerows and veteran trees provide nesting habitats for many birds including turtle dove, blackcap and whitethroat and food for winter visitors such as fieldfare and redwing. Dew ponds dug in each field originally for watering livestock, are now breeding grounds for great crested newts, dragonflies and damselflies.

As a Coronation Meadow, seed from Upwood Meadows is sown on other sites as part of the scheme.

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