About the reserve

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.

Reserve leaflet and map

Additional information

• Further information on the history of Upwood Meadows, by kind permission of Huntingdonshire Fauna and Flora Society, is available to download here. 

History of Upwood Meadows

• 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.