Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Location | Hertfordshire |
---|---|
Grid reference | SP952135 |
Interest | Biological |
Area | 19.7 hectares (49 acres) |
Notification | 1990 |
Location map | Magic Map |
Aldbury Nowers is a 19.7 hectares (49 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the Chiltern Hills, north-east of Tring in Hertfordshire. The site was notified in 1990 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. [1] [2] It is managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
The site, formerly known as "Duchie's Piece," comprises two areas of hillside, linked by The Ridgeway. The calcareous meadow element of the site hosts the flowers of chalk grassland and has butterfly habitats with thirty-four different species of butterfly recently recorded, including the Duke of Burgundy, hairstreaks and the Essex skipper. The site also includes a "beech hanger", a type of upland ancient woodland, and is considered one of the best examples of this feature in Hertfordshire. [1] [3]
Archaeological features on the site are two sections of Grim's Ditch, [1] part of a 30-kilometre (19 mi) linear earthwork thought to originate in the Iron Age, and two bowl barrows, from either the Late Neolithic or the Bronze Age periods. [4] [5]
Northwest of the village of Aldbury, it adjoins the Pitstone Hill SSSI in Buckinghamshire and provides views over the Tring Gap and Vale of Aylesbury. [1] [3]
The site is always open and there is access by a footpath from Northfield Road. [3]
Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in Buckinghamshire, England, 233 m (757 ft) above sea level in the Chiltern Hills, close to Ivinghoe and Aldbury. Dunstable, Berkhamsted and Tring are nearby.
Pegsdon Hills and Hoo Bit is a 79-hectare (200-acre) nature reserve in Pegsdon in Bedfordshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The site is on the border between Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and it covers Pegsdon Hills and part of the adjacent Deacon Hill in Bedfordshire, and Hoo Bit in Hertfordshire. It is in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and part of the site is designated by Natural England as the Deacon Hill SSSI.
Totternhoe Knolls is a 13.1-hectare (32-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Totternhoe in Bedfordshire. It is also a local nature reserve, and part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site is owned by Central Bedfordshire Council and leased to the National Trust. Most of the site is maintained jointly by the National Trust and the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (WTBCN), and is part of the WTBCN Totternhoe nature reserve, which also includes Totternhoe Chalk Quarry and Totternhoe Stone Pit. The SSSI also includes Totternhoe Castle, the earthworks of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle which is a Scheduled monument.
Wormley-Hoddesdonpark Wood North is a 143.9-hectare (356-acre) woodland area in Hertfordshire which has been designated as a biological site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is listed as Grade 1 in A Nature Conservation Review, and is also designated a Special Area of Conservation. It is in Hoddesdon in the borough of Broxbourne, but part of the site is in East Hertfordshire.
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust manages over 40 nature reserves covering nearly 810 hectares north of London, in Hertfordshire and the historic county of Middlesex, part of which is divided between the London boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Harrow and Hillingdon. It has over 21,000 members, and is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts across the UK. It is a Registered Charity, with its Registered Office in St Albans, and had an income in the year to 31 March 2014 of over £1.5 million.
Rye Meads is a 58.5-hectare (145-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Rye House, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. It is one of series of wetlands and reservoirs situated along the River Lea, to the north-east of London. It is part of the Lea Valley Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area.
Old Park Wood is a 16.7-hectare (41-acre) Site of Special Scientific Interest in Harefield in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The south-east part is an 8-hectare (20-acre) nature reserve owned and managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
Tring Reservoirs is a group of four reservoirs close to Tring on the border of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. Their purpose is to feed the Grand Union Canal.
Blaxhall Common is a nature reserve in the parish of Blaxhall in the East Suffolk District of Suffolk. The reserve is owned by Blaxhall Parish Council and managed by Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It is designated a 45.9-hectare (113-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest as Blaxhall Heath. It is part of the Sandlings Special Protection Area under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, and of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A Bronze Age bowl barrow is a Scheduled Monument.
Alpine Meadow is a 0.4 hectare nature reserve near Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. It is a designated biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust and the planning authority is Dacorum Borough Council.
Hunsdon Mead is a 34 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) west of Harlow and east of Roydon in Essex. The site is partly in Essex and partly in Hertfordshire, and it is jointly owned and managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust and the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. The SSSI also includes part of the neighbouring Roydon Mead. The planning authorities are East Hertfordshire District Council and Epping Forest District Council. Hunsdon Mead is registered common land.
Tring Park is a public open space in Tring, owned by Dacorum Borough Council and managed by the Woodland Trust. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Half of the 264 acres is undulating grassland, grazed by cattle. Part of the park, together with the nearby Oddy Hill, is the 35.6-hectare (88-acre) biological "Oddy Hill and Tring Park" Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Sawbridgeworth Marsh is a 6.3-hectare (16-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire, apart from a small area in the north which is in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. The planning authorities are East Hertfordshire District Council and Uttlesford District Council.
Knebworth Woods is a 120.8-hectare (299-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Knebworth, immediately south of Stevenage in Hertfordshire. The planning authority is North Hertfordshire District Council.
Tring Woodlands is a 23.8-hectare (59-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Tring in Hertfordshire. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the local planning authority is Dacorum District Council. The wood has a rich flora, showing that it is well established. It is a good example of a semi-natural beech wood in Hertfordshire. Plants that are abundant include woodruff, wood anemone and dog's mercury, and there are a variety of woodland birds. There is access to the wood from Hastoe Hill.
Hill End Pit is a 0.7-hectare (1.7-acre) nature reserve on the site of a former chalk pit, in St Paul's Walden in North Hertfordshire. It was formerly managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT). In February 2016 HMWT announced that three sites, Barkway Chalk Pit, Hill End Pit and Pryor's Wood, which HMWT managed on behalf of their owner, North Hertfordshire District Council, were to return to Council management as the Trust was no longer able to meet the cost. It has the largest colony of Azeca goodalli snails in Hertfordshire. Plants include viper's bugloss, cowslip and marjoram, there are butterflies such as common blue and gatekeeper, and many birds including woodpeckers.
Danemead is a 5.6-hectare nature reserve west of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. It is part of the Wormley-Hoddesdonpark Wood North Site of Special Scientific Interest.
51°48′42″N0°37′08″W / 51.811569°N 0.618893°W