Places to Visit | Uttlesford Wildlife

A selection of wildlife sites to visit in the district. Click on the map pins on the interactive map or the green button in the table listing below for each place to link to the most relevant website with full details. [N.B. requires minimum screen width of 1200px to work fully]

Another interactive map and links to wildlife sites in Uttlesford can be found on the Wild Essex website at http://www.wildessex.net/main/Uttlesford.html

Essex Wildlife Trust sites can be found on their website on this link http://www.essexwt.org.uk/wildlife/reserves

Name	Details
Aubrey Buxton Nature Reserve, Alsa Street, Stansted.	Stansted – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL52172644 – Access Free on foot at all times – High woodland, grassland; lakes. Photo by Roger Jones on Geograph
Audley End House grounds.	Saffron Walden -English Heritage – TL52333802 – Entry and car park charge to the grounds and house – The Lake can be viewed without entering the grounds from the road bridge – good for birds especially overwintering waterfowl, and bats on summer evenings.
Bendysh Woods	Radwinter – Forestry Commission – TL61873975 – Access Free on foot at all times – Ancient oxlip woods, once designated as SSSI but damaged by coniferisation. Now under restoration to natural broad-leaved woodlands with wide rides and formerly rich flora but damaged by vehicle ruts
Birchanger Wood	Birchanger / Bishop’s Stortford – Birchanger Woods Trust – TL50572246 website – Access Free on foot at all times – Ancient coppice anemone and bluebell wood
Farnham Green	Village green filled with wildflowers in June and July, puts all the other village greens to shame, especially those looking like a bowling green – TL468254 – No website . – Access Free on foot at all times – Amazing wildflower grassland
Flitch Way Dunmow Cutting	Runs from Hatfield Forest through Takely, Great Dunmow, Felstead to Braintree – Essex County Council – TL51942126 to TL71462210 – 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.
Garnetts Wood	High Easter – Essex County Council – TL63491845 – Access Free on foot at all times – Ancient coppice woodland, Small-leaved Lime, ponds and streams
Harrison Sayer	Hadstock – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL55754412 – Access Free on foot at all times – Boulder clay grassland with rare wildflowers and remains of WWII airfield structures. Photos by Roger Jones on Geograph.
Hatfield Forest	Hatfield Broad Oak – National Trust – TL547220 – Access Free on foot at all times, but with Car parking charges – SSSI: An incredible survival of a medieval Forest: the most important in England, though now suffering from the grazing pressure of too many deer.
Linnets Wood	Ugley – Woodland Trust – TL51622723 – Access Free on foot at all times – Small plantation of recently created mixed broadleaf woodland
Little Hales Wood	Ashdon – Forestry commission – TL57603428 – Access Free on foot at all times. Park in the field entry opposite ‘Barleycroft’ – Coniferised wood now being de-coniferised. Woodland flora, butterflies, deer.
Noakes Grove	Sewards End – privately owned nature reserve with open access – TL572388 – Access Free on foot at all times.
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.
Rushy Mead	Great Hallingbury – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL49791965 – Access Free on foot at all times – Wetlands by the River Stort. Photo by Roger Jones on Geograph.
Sawbridgeworth Marsh	Little Hallingbury – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL49391598 – Access Free on foot at all times – Natural springs feed this waterlogged marsh. Good for spring flowers including Early and Southern Marsh Orchids.
Shadwell Wood	Ashdon – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL57364123 – Access Free on foot at all times. Park in the field entry opposite ‘Barleycroft’on the east side of the road and walk back across the road and along the track beside ‘Barleycroft’ – A worked coppice wood cut on a rotational pattern with Spring flowers including Oxlip in mid-April. Photo by Glyn Baker on Geograph.
Sweetings Meadow	Lindsell – Essex wildlife Trust – TL63232859 – Access Free on foot at all times – Small orchard with traditional Apple varieties and meadow flowers including Common Spotted and Pyramidal Orchids. Photo by Tony Morton.
Turner’s Spring	Stansted – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL52922417 – Access Free on foot at all times – Broadleaved Bluebell wood plus ancient meadow. Photo by Roger Jones on Geograph.
Wall Wood	Great Hallingbury – National Trust – TL52761868 – Access Free on foot at all times – Ancient woodland adjacent to Hatfield Forest – with the southernmost Oxlips in England and Oxlip-Primrose hybrids.
West Wood	Little Sampford – Essex Wildlife Trust – TL62403320 – Access Free on foot at all times – SSSI: ancient oxlip wood, great crested newts, orchids. Photo by Roger Jones on Geograph.
Woodside Green	The Hallingburys – National Trust – TL51791843 – Access Free on foot at all times – Ancient pasture