About the reserve

Grassland now covers what was once railway tracks and the former embankments have been colonised by grassland, scrub and young trees that provide a mosaic of habitat types and wildlife for all seasons. A deep cutting with damp soil and overhanging trees lies at one end of the reserve, near the road bridge.  At the other end, the reserve is above a well-drained steep embankment.  The wide variety of soil types support a large range of plants. 

More than 30 species of butterfly have been recorded here including marbled white, white-letter hairstreak, dingy skipper, small copper and holly blue.  

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.