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WINDMILL HILL
WORCESTERSHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST

Nearest Town:  Evesham

OS Map:  SP 072477  (Landranger 150 Explorer 205)

A limestone grassland reserve on a scarp overlooking the Avon Valley.

Location and access:  The entrance to Windmill Hill reserve is on the south of the B4510, Evesham (Bengeworth) to Littletons road, at grid reference SP 072477, approximately 800 metres from the Fish and Anchor Inn and just before the brow of the hill. Cars can be parked on the roadside opposite the entrance, but please take care as the road is quite busy with poor visibility for approaching traffic.

Please use the stiles and always shut gates as stock may be grazing on the reserve from time to time. Dogs must be kept under control at all times.


Features:

limestone grassland

good for butterflies and other insects

Windmill Hill is a 6 hectare limestone grassland and scrubland reserve a few miles east of Evesham, part of the north-south escarpment which stretches from Marlcliff to Blackminster and faces west over the valley of the River Avon. The hill is capped with Lower Lias limestones and below them is a twenty foot band of Rheatic clays and shales. The steeper slope below the Rheatic is Mercian mudstone. The soils are generally basic and limy and support a rich community of wildlife.

Over the last 400 years or more, the escarpment has been rough grazing land with some scrub and woodland. During this century, because of the changing agricultural practices, neglect and other reasons, scrub and woodland have come to predominate and, apart from Windmill Hill, nearly all remaining grassland along the escarpment has been lost or improved for agriculture. The Trust purchased Windmill Hill in 1979 and erected fencing to enclose areas of grassland to reintroduce management through grazing.

The open grassland has a good limestone flora with twayblade, bee orchid, common-spotted orchid, bird's-foot trefoil, dog violet, cowslip, fairy flax, field scabious, common knapweed, wild liquorice, and common and spiny restharrow. Flowering hawthorn and blackthorn provide early nectar for hoverflies and other insects. The reserve is particularly important for butterflies including marbled white, brown argus, small skipper, wall brown, common blue, meadow brown, speckled wood. brimstone, small tortoiseshell and small heath. As you walk around the hillside, look out for old, large anthills and the herbs and flowers which grow on them. The mixture of grassland, shrubs and trees provides good cover for willow warbler and chiffchaff. Kestrels will hunt across the open hillside for small mammals.









More Information:
The nearby Cleeve Prior reserve lies just a few hundred yards farther north. A combined guide for the two reserves is available from the Trust office .

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