The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) is a Wildlife Trust covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in England.
The trust was formerly called the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Naturalists' Trust (BBONT). __TOC__
Sites Berkshire Site Photograph Area LocationPublic accessClassificationsDescriptionAudrey's MeadowGreenham YESThe site is named after Mrs Audrey Appleby, who set up the Friends of Audrey's Meadow. Invertebrates include brown hawker and emperor dragonflies, ringlet, small skipper and large skipper butterflies and Roesel's bush-crickets.Avery's PightleEnborne YESSSSIThis unimproved meadow is species rich and it has surviving ridge and furrow, suggesting a long history of traditional management without modern herbicides or fertilisers. Twenty-four species of grass and a 113 herbs have been recorded. There is a wet ditch which has water whorl grass.Bowdown WoodsCrookham YESSSSIThis site has heath, acid grassland and mixed scrub on the sands and clays of the Bagshot Beds, together with areas of gravel, on higher ground. London Clay outcrops on the lower slopes, and it has woodland with rich ground flora. There are many deep valleys with unpolluted spring-fed streams. The insect fauna is also very rich.Bucklebury CommonBucklebury FPThis privately owned estate is mainly broadleaved woodland, including a 400-year-old avenue of oak trees, but there are also large areas of heath. Fauna include dark bush-crickets, slow-worms, meadow grasshoppers, adders, nightjars and woodlarks.Chawridge BankWinkfield YESSSSIThis linear site is named after the stream called Chawridge Bourne, which runs through it. Half of it is unimproved grassland, which is managed by sheep grazing. There are also areas of scrub and broadleaved woodland. On the east side there is an ancient parish boundary hedge which has diverse tree flora.Decoy HeathMortimer West End YESSSSIThis heathland site also has areas of bog. It is one of the best sites in the county for dragonflies and damselflies; the twenty-three species which breed in its shallow pools include keeled skimmer and four-spotted chaser dragonflies and white-legged, emerald and small red damselflies.Greenham and Crookham CommonsGreenham YESSSSIIn the 1980s Greenham Common was a military base storing nuclear weapons and the location of the Women's Peace Camp, but following the closure of the base it was opened to the public as a nature reserve in 2000. The two commons have the largest area of heathland and acid grassland in the county and other habitats are gorse scrub, broad leaved woodland and water-logged alder valleys. There is a rich variety of invertebrates, such as the white admiral, purple emperor and silver-washed fritillary woodland butterflies.Haymill ValleyBurnham YESLNRThis nature reserve has woodland with bluebells and great spotted woodpecker, together with reedbeds which have flora including yellow iris and marsh-marigold. There are butterflies such as orange-tips, holly blues and speckled woods. Hosehill LakeTheale YESLNRThe lake has a wide variety of water birds, including lapwings, little ringed plovers and great crested grebes. There is also a wildflower meadow which is grazed by wild Exmoor ponies and it has many butterflies and moths.Hurley Chalk PitMaidenhead YESThis chalk pit, which was dug more than 150 years ago, is warm and sheltered and it has 15 species of butterfly, including common blues and gatekeepers. There are varied habitats, with woodland, scrub, grassland and hedges.Inkpen CommonInkpen YESSSSIThis is a surviving fragment of the former Inkpen Great Common. It is mainly damp heathland, with small areas of marsh, woods and bracken. Flora on the heath include purple moor grass, common gorse, lousewort, lesser dodder and the only surviving colony in Berkshire of pale heath violet.Inkpen Crocus FieldInkpen YESSSSIIn 1912, Charles Rothschild founded 'The Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves', the forerunner of The Wildlife Trusts, and Inkpen Crocus Field is one of the 284 'Rochschild Reserves', a list drawn up by the Society in its first three years of sites "worthy of preservation". The spring crocus is a rare Red Data Book plant which is not native to Britain but has been recorded on this site since 1800. More than 400,000 flowers bloom in the spring.Kintbury Newt PondsKintbury YESThe ponds in this site have a population of great crested newts, which are a legally protected species. Their status protected the site from development as part of a housing estate in the 1990s. The site also has dense blackthorn scrub, reedbeds, woodland and grassland. Birds include chiffchaffs and song thrushes.Loddon Nature ReserveTwyford YESThis site has a large gravel pit with several islands and surrounded by scrub, which provides a habitat for nesting wetland birds such as great crested grebes, moorhens and coots. There are wintering birds such as gadwalls, smews, tufted ducks, pochards, cormorants and snipes. Moor CopseTidmarsh YESSSSIThis reserve in the valley of the River Pang has wildflower meadows surrounded by wet woodland. In the autumn the woods have a range of fungi, such as deadman's fingers and green elfcup mushrooms. Mammals include foxes and badgers.Nature Discovery CentreThatcham PLThis site has a variety of habitats including a lake, woodland, reedbeds and hedges. The lake has many wintering wildfowl such as shovelers and pochrds. Invertebrates include the bloody-nosed and rhinoceros beetles.Padworth CommonMortimer West End YESLNRThis site is mainly heath, but there are also areas of grassland, wet gullies, ponds and oak and pine woodland. There is a variety of heathland birds such as Dartford warbler, tree pipit, European stonechat, woodlark and the rare nightjar. The pond has many dragonflies and damselflies.Paices Wood Country ParklandAldermaston YESThe park has seven lakes, woodland and an amphibian area. Birds include lapwings and woodlarks, there are butterflies white admirals, graylings and purple emperors, and amphibians include palmate newts and common frogs.Rack MarshHungerford YESNCR, SAC, SSSIThis is an ancient water meadow in the valley of the River Lambourn, which has a thick layer of peat. A prehistoric canoe has been discovered in the peat, preserved in the water-logged conditions. The site has the nationally rare and declining Desmoulin's whorl snail, which is listed in the British Red Data Book, and there are some locally rare plants, such as marsh arrow-grass and southern marsh orchid.Seven BarrowsLambourn YESSM, SSSIThe site is part of a Bronze Age cemetery with scattered bowl barrows. The area is an unimproved chalk grassland with a rich flora and over 100 species of herbs have been recorded. It is also very rich in insects, especially butterflies, including small blue, brown argus, chalkhill blue, dark green fritillary and the scarce marsh fritillary.Shepperlands FarmFinchampstead PPThis site was left to the trust by Len and Marie Goodwin. It has woodland, a wildflower meadow and an area of heathland. The meadow has flowers such as common bird's-foot-trefoils, buttercups and cuckooflowers in the summer, while the woodland has old oak trees and rotting timber which provide habitats for insects.Snelsmore Common Country ParkNewbury YESSSSIThis is a country park which has diverse habitats, including dry heath, wet heath, bog, birch woods and ancient semi-natural broadleaved woodland. The bog has a 5,000 year old layer of peat which has been studied stratigraphically to show changes in ancient land use and vegetation. An area of wet alder woodland has many lichens, including a rich community which grows on trees, such as Parmelia caperarta, Pertusaria pertusa and Lecanactis abietina.Sole Common PondNewbury YESThe main wildlife interest of this site lies in the area of bog, which has the insectivorous round-leaved sundew, bogbean, marsh St John's-wort and common polypody. Other habitats are the pond, woodland and heath.Thatcham Reed BedsThatcham YESLNR, SAC, SSSIThe site is nationally important for its reed beds, fen and species rich alder woods. It is also nationally important for Desmoulin's whorl snails and there are many breeding birds, such as the nationally rare Cetti's warbler. Wetland plants include common valerian, skullcap and marsh bedstraw.Watts BankLambourn YESSSSIThis steeply sloping site is an area of unimproved grassland and scrub. There is a rich variety of herbs, such as salad burnet, lady's bedstraw, rough hawkbit and harebell. There are also many species of butterfly, including the uncommon Duke of Burgundy.Wildmoor HeathSandhurst YESSSSIThis sloping site has wet and dry heath and woodland. There are also areas of bog which are grazed by Dexter cattle to keep down the growth of coarse purple moor-grass; twenty species of damselfly and dragonfly have been recorded in the bogs and plants include bog asphodel, butterwort, round-leaved sundew and white beaked-sedge.Wokefield CommonBurghfield YESThe common is heath and woodland with two ponds, Dragonfly Pond and Pullen's Pond, which provide a habitat for a variety of dragonflies and damselflies. Other invertebrates include common blue, brimstone and comma butterflies. The main heathland plants are bell heather, common gorse and broom.
Buckinghamshire