Worts Meadow Local Nature Reserve

Worts Meadow is a former mediaeval settlement site, with a surviving homestead moat and fish pond, and earthworks showing the location of roads and houses. The moat is most likely that of the manor of Bray, the centre of an estate that was mentioned in the Domesday Book as a holding of Ely Abbey.

Worts Meadow is a Scheduled Monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, and as such is deemed to be of the highest quality and of national importance.

The earthworks around the site indicate that smaller houses and other structures surrounded the manor house, but these appear to have been abandoned in the 14th century when the focus of settlement at Landbeach shifted. Brays Manor eventually passed to the County Council as part of the County Farms Estate, who have managed it as a pocket park.

The sites wildlife interest is reflected in the number of habitats found on the site, including:

• improved lowland grassland pasture
• hedgerows
• plantation woodland and ponds.