Grafton, Worcestershire

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Grafton
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Grafton
Location within Worcestershire
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Sovereign state United Kingdom
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England
Worcestershire
52°02′00″N2°01′15″W / 52.033248°N 2.020969°W / 52.033248; -2.020969 Coordinates: 52°02′00″N2°01′15″W / 52.033248°N 2.020969°W / 52.033248; -2.020969

Grafton is a village in Worcestershire, England. Historically it was in the parish of Bromsgrove. [1]

Grafton Wood

Grafton Wood is an ancient wood, originally part of the Forest of Feckenham, and is now jointly owned by the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation. In October 2014 the two organisations bought Laight Rough, a seven-acre of ancient woodland, adjoining Grafton Wood. [2]

Grafton Wood is the centre of the only colony of the brown hairstreak butterflies in the Midlands. [3] Laight Rough is also important for other butterflies such as white admiral, white-letter hairstreak and the silver-washed fritillary. In 2009 the Bat Conservation Trust launched a detail study of 10 counties in England to determine the range of the Bechstein's bat and in 2010 a lactating female Bechstein's was discovered in Grafton Wood suggesting that there was a breeding colony in the wood or close by. The People's Trust for Endangered Species are funding further research work. [4] In October 2014 it was reported that the scarce Brandt's bat has also been found at the 300-year-old woodland. [5]

Related Research Articles

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is one of 47 wildlife trusts throughout the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1968 to conserve, protect and restore the county's wildlife.

Lower Woods

Lower Woods is a 280.1-hectare (692-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Wickwar, South Gloucestershire, notified in 1966 and renotified in 1985. The site area has increased at last revision in 1974 to a 284.1-hectare (702-acre) site. The site is a nature reserve managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

Midger

Midger is a 65.7-hectare (162-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest straddling the border of Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire, notified in 1966 and renotified in 1984. Since the last revision in 1974, the size has been reduced to a 56-hectare (140-acre) site. It lies east of Hillesley, Gloucestershire and north of Hawkesbury Upton, South Gloucestershire. It is at the head of the Kilcott Valley.

Strawberry Banks

Strawberry Banks is a 5.06-hectare (12.5-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1993.

Bechsteins bat species of mammal

Bechstein's bat is a species of vesper bat found in Europe and western Asia, living in extensive areas of woodland.

Castlemorton Human settlement in England

Castlemorton is a village and civil parish close to Malvern in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England. It consists of a village centre, a large common and many farms and houses within the area. To the south of the village are the earthwork remains of a medieval motte-and-bailey castle.

Brampton Wood nature reserve in the United Kingdom

Brampton Wood is a 132.1 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cambridgeshire. The site is west of Brampton in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Aldbury Nowers

Aldbury Nowers is a 19.7 hectare 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. 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.

Sydenham Hill Wood wood in Southwark, London, England

Sydenham Hill Wood is a ten-hectare wood on the northern slopes of the Norwood Ridge in the London Borough of Southwark. It is designated as a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation. With the adjacent Dulwich Wood, Sydenham Hill Wood is the largest extant tract of the ancient Great North Wood. The two woods are formed from coppices known as Lapsewood, Old Ambrook Hill Wood and Peckarmans Wood after the relocation of The Crystal Palace in 1854 and the creation of the high level line in 1865.

Upton Warren Human settlement in England

Upton Warren is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district, in Worcestershire, England. The village is situated just off the A38 road between Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa, and on the River Salwarpe. In the 2001 census, the parish, which also contains the small hamlet of Cooksey Green, had a population of 291.

Oak Hill Wood

Oak Hill Wood is a 10-hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) and a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation Grade I, in East Barnet, London. It is owned by the London Borough of Barnet, and part of it is a 5.5-hectare nature reserve managed by the London Wildlife Trust.

Feckenham Forest

Feckenham Forest was a royal forest, centred on the village of Feckenham, covering large parts of Worcestershire and west Warwickshire. It was not entirely wooded, nor entirely the property of the King. Rather, the King had legal rights over game, wood and grazing within the forest, and special courts imposed harsh penalties when these rights were violated. Courts and the forest gaol were located at Feckenham and executions took place at Gallows Green near Hanbury.

Trench Wood

Trench Wood is a woodland area part managed by the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and Butterfly Conservation. It is located around 6 miles north-east of Worcester near the small villages of Dunhampstead and Sale Green. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the main line railway from Birmingham to the south-west of England both pass just to the west of the wood. The back third of the woodland is in private ownership and is not accessible.

Daneway Banks SSSI

Daneway Banks is a 17-hectare (42-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954 and renotified in 1983. It lies half a mile west of Sapperton and is part of a group of wildlife sites in the Frome Valley that includes Siccaridge Wood and Sapperton Canal reserves. The site is in the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Foxley Wood

Foxley Wood is a nature reserve in Foxley, Norfolk, England, the largest ancient woodland and coppice in Norfolk. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust, which manages this reserve, bought it in 1998. It is 123 hectares in size. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and a National Nature Reserve.

Collinpark Wood SSSI

Collinpark Wood is a 66.69-hectare (164.8-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1966, revised in 1974 and renotified in 1983. There was a boundary change in 1983. There are seven units of assessment. Unit 1 is a 15-hectare (37-acre) area owned and managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The trust purchased this part of the wood in 1979 with grant aid from WWF. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

Rough Bank, Miserden

Rough Bank, Miserden is a 9.2-hectare (23-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1986. It was purchased by the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation in 2012.

Finemere Wood

Finemere Wood is a 45.7 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest near Quainton in Buckinghamshire. It is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust and the planning authorities are Aylesbury Vale District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council.

Rushbeds Wood

Rushbeds Wood is a 56 hectare nature reserve near Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire, managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). It is a surviving fragment of the ancient Bernwood Forest. The reserve is part of Rushbeds Wood and Railway Cutting, an 80.2 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. This includes a section of the Chiltern Main Line railway cutting, which runs along the north-east side of the BBOWT reserve.

References

  1. 'Parishes: Grafton Manor', in A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3 (London, 1913), pp. 123-127
  2. BBC Hereford & Worcester News Future of Laight Rough butterfly woodland secured 1 November 2014 Accessed 3.11.14
  3. Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Grafton Wood
  4. Bats about Bechstein’s James Hitchcock Worcestershire Life August 2012 p99
  5. BBC Hereford & Worcester News Future of Laight Rough butterfly woodland secured 1 November 2014 Accessed 3.11.14