About the reserve

Teeming with wildlife, the grassland is home to an extraordinary range of flowers, starting with cowslips and adder's tongue fern in the spring, followed by ragged-robin, great burnet and the now scarce saw-wort in the summer. Even the grasses of the old pasture are special with quaking-grass and sweet vernal grass indicating its traditional nature. We graze the small meadow to maintain low fertility; the larger meadow is occasionally cut for hay, then grazed.

The woodland, known as Chalton Spinney, has towering oak and ash, with alder in wetter areas. In Spring, the woodland floor is carpeted with bluebells, along with sanicle, dog's mercury and the occasional primrose.   

Multi-stemmed hazel tells of past and ongoing coppicing, while on the meandering path through the wood, spring bluebells are followed by pungent ramsons.

As a Coronation Meadow seed from Fancott Meadows is collected and donated to other sites as part of the scheme.

Location map

Reserve map

Leaflet and map

Additional information

• Scroll down to see the reserve boundary. Please note the boundary map is for indication purposes only and does not show the Wildlife Trusts definitive land boundary. 

FOR ANY MEDIA ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT OUR COMMUNICATIONS TEAM:   communicationsteam@wildlifebcn.org or 01954 713500 and ask for comms team.