Uttlesford Wildlife

Harrison Sayer Nature Reserve - see our page here

https://www.uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/harrison-sayer-nature-reserve/

Shadwell Wood, Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve - see our page

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/shadwell-wood/

Little Hales Wood - Forestry Commission - ancient wood replanted with conifers and now partially cleared for natural regeneration. See Wild Essex web page here -

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Little%20Hales%20Wood.htm

Little Chesterford roadside verge - wildflower grassland with a good range of summertime chalk loving species - created on the site of an old road bypassed when a new roundabout was built. Turn into the village and immediately left into the service road, and the grassland is beyond the wooden fence.

Link to Info Sheet - https://www.uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Little-Chesterford-roadside-verge.pdf

Noakes Grove Nature Reserve - a privately run nature reserve open to the public - see our web page -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/things-to-do/volunteer/noakes-grove/

or the web page of the organisation which runs it -

https://www.walden-countryside.co.uk/

Audley End House - English Heritage - Entrance fee payable - the grounds of the house are run on nature friendly lines, wildflowers in the grassland, wildfowl on the lake.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/audley-end-house-and-gardens/

Rowney Wood: Debden - Forestry Commission - TL57603428 - Access Free on foot at all times, parking in the road chippings bay opposite Carver Barracks, Elder Street. - Ancient woodland replanted to conifers and now returned to native woodland by natural regeneration, but greatly hampered by deer.

West Wood nature reserve - Essex Wildlife Trust

Managed coppice woodland - see our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/west-wood/

Linnets Wood, Ugley - Woodland Trust

A newly created woodland in the 1990s - More information on the Wild Essex website here -

https://wildessex.net/sites/Linnets%20Wood.htm

The Woodland Trust has its management plan on this link -

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/47059/4510-linnets-wood.pdf

Aubrey Buxton nature reserve - Essex Wildlife Trust - woodland, grassland and lakes -

More information on our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/aubrey-buxton-nature-reserve/

Bendysh Woods - Forestry Commission - ancient broadleaf woodland planted to conifers and now being converted back to broadleaved trees.

More information on the Wild Essex website here -

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Bendysh%20Woods.htm

Turners Spring - Essex Wildlife Trust - woodland and grasslands - accessible by public footpath from Burton End.

More information on our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/turners-spring/

Rushy Mead nature reserve - Essex Wildlife Trust - woodland and marsh - access from the River Stort towpath. Large areas are too wet for access on foot, but they are good for wildlife. More information on our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/rushy-mead/ 

Sawbridgeworth Marsh - Essex Wildlife Trust - Access through the marsh on a raised walkway - specialist wetland plants, birds and insects.

More information on our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/sawbridgeworth-marsh/

Woodside Green - National Trust - part of the Hatfield Forest complex - common grazing grassland.

More information on the Wild Essex website -

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Woodside%20Green.htm

Wall Wood - National Trust - part of the Hatfield Forest complex - Ancient woodland adjacent to Hatfield Forest – with the southernmost Oxlips in England and Oxlip-Primrose hybrids.

More information on the Wild Essex website -

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Wall%20Wood.htm

Hatfield Forest - National Trust - Ancient wood pasture, a National Nature Reserve and SSSI: An incredible survival of a medieval Forest: the most important in England, though now suffering from the grazing pressure of too many deer. Car parking charges. Pre-booking at peak times. More information here -

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hatfield-forest

Sweetings Meadow - Essex Wildlife Trust - an old orchard with old varieties of fruit trees, the main wildlife interest is the wildflowers.

More information on our page here -

https://uttlesford-wildlife.org.uk/places-to-visit/sweetings-meadow/

Part of  The Flitch Way which runs  from Hatfield Forest through Takely, Great Dunmow, Felstead to Braintree – Essex County Council - Access Free on foot at all times and a National Cycle Network route – The old railway line from Braintree to Bishop’s Stortford: now a linear country park with a mix of habitats. Best wildflowers in the cutting just west of Great Dunmow, where cycling is not permitted, can be partly flooded.

Leaflet from Essex Highways;

https://www.essexhighways.org/uploads/files/flitchway.pdf

Garnetts Wood - Essex County Council - Ancient coppice woodland, Small-leaved Lime, ponds and streams.

More information on the Wild Essex website -

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Garnetts%20Wood.htm

Birchanger Wood - Ancient Bluebell and Anemone wood

http://www.wildessex.net/sites/Birchanger%20Wood.htm

Farnham Common - not a piece of Common Land but privately owned, but public access on foot is permitted to see the wide range of wildflower species which grow here on land that has not been ploughed or treated with fertilisers - now very rare. Remote and quite hard to find.