Melrose Farm Meadows by Wendy Carter
Melrose Farm Meadows
Location
Know before you go
Parking information
Park on roadside by Brotheridge Green old railway nature reserve (take footpath to south from bridge).Grazing animals
Cattle and sheepAccess
Access is restricted to public footpath only. Muddy and slippery underfoot when wet.
Dogs
When to visit
Opening times
Dawn to dusk.Best time to visit
April to JulyAbout the reserve
About 130 plant species have been recorded on this particularly important example of an old Worcestershire meadow. These include meadow saffron, green-winged orchid, adder’s-tongue fern, dyer’s greenweed, cowslip and saw-wort. Due to the fragile nature of the reserve, access is restricted to the public footpath.
Bigger, better and more joined up
This is one of a number of grasslands and one orchard in the area - we believe that a landscape-scale approach to wildlife conservation is essential. Wildlife needs space to adapt and move to cope with the consequences of climate change. Practically, this means that we need our countryside to be bigger, better and more joined up to provide a coherent network of large areas linked by corridors that can provide benefits for people as well as for biodiversity.
In a pastoral landscape these scattered sites demonstrate how important each sensitively managed piece of land has become and we demonstrate their importance of protecting the existing wildlife value to encourage other landowners to manage their land and hedgerows less intensively. These small reserves lie within Natural England’s Severn and Avon Vales Landscape Area, and within the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust’s Malvern Chase Living Landscape.