Piddle Brook Meadows

The trees and hedgerows around these important meadows are home to birds, insects and small mammals; the song of the whitethroat can be heard during spring and summer.

To enhance the diversity of the grassland throughout the meadows we will take a hay cut in summer and graze the fields in autumn.  We’ll also re-pollard some of the trees and manage the hedges and brookside vegetation to provide dense cover for nesting birds.  Pollarding involves cutting off branches above head height that encourages a dense head of foliage and branches.  This helps trees to survive longer and provides valuable wildlife habitat.

Three flowers found in these meadows – downy oat grass, dropwort and meadow rue – are especially scarce and their presence has helped part of the fields to be officially recognised as a Local Wildlife Site.  These make up a network of sites that are managed for wildlife and geological features.

In summer the meadow flowers are at their best .  Visitors should look for yellow rattle, lady’s bedstraw, salad burnet and sweet vernal grass.  Lucky visitors may spot a kingfisher or even an otter using the brook and nearby vegetation for hunting and resting.

The meadows are adjacent to our Naunton Court Fields nature reserve; two arable fields farmed in a wildlife-friendly way to conserve rare arable plants.

Due to the fragility of this site reserve please stay on the public right of way and the permissive path.