Piddle Brook Meadows

Piddle Brook Meadows by Wendy Carter

Piddle Brook Meadows by Wendy Carter

6.94ha
Dog on a lead
Volunteer Group
The meandering Piddle Brook and three adjacent meadows are rich in wildflowers and wildlife.

Location

Naunton Beauchamp
Pershore
Worcestershire
WR10 2LQ
A static map of Piddle Brook Meadows

Know before you go

Size
7 hectares
P

Parking information

Limited parking on roadside

Grazing animals

Cattle

Access

Please keep to the public footpath and permissive path; can be muddy and slippery when wet. Access via kissing gates.

Dogs

On a lead

When to visit

Opening times

Dawn to dusk

Best time to visit

May to June

About the reserve

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 take a hay cut in summer and graze the fields in autumn.  We’re also re-pollarding some of the trees and managing 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.

The flowers are at their best in early summer and 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.

Contact us

Thomas Watkins
Contact number: 01905 754919

Environmental designation

Local Wildlife Site (LWS)

Location map