The Withey Beds is a 7.5 hectare Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. It was declared an LNR in 2004 by Three Rivers District Council, and the council owns and manages the site. [1] [2]
Rickmansworth is a small town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, approximately 17 miles (27 km) northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne. The nearest large town is Watford, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) to the east. Rickmansworth is the administrative seat of the Three Rivers District Council. The confluence of the Chess and the Gade with the Colne in Rickmansworth inspired the district's name. The enlarged Colne flows south to form a major tributary of the River Thames. The town is served by the Metropolitan line of the London Underground and Chiltern Railways from London Marylebone to Aylesbury.
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in England. It is bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region.
Three Rivers District Council is the local authority for the Three Rivers non-metropolitan district of England, the United Kingdom. Three Rivers is located in the south-west of Hertfordshire, in the East of England region. The Council itself is based in Rickmansworth, the largest settlement in the district, but also comprises Abbots Langley, Chorleywood, Croxley Green, Maple Cross, Mill End, Sarratt and South Oxhey.
A withey (willow) [3] bed is an area where willow is grown for coppicing. The site borders the River Colne, and it has a variety of habitats including dry grassland, wet woodland, marsh and ditches. A World War II pillbox has been turned into a bat roost. [1] Rare invertebrates found on the site are the oak jewel beetle, soldier fly, and Roesel's bush cricket. [4]
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, known as a stool. New growth emerges and after a number of years, the coppiced tree is harvested and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree.
The Colne is a river in England which is a tributary of the River Thames. Just over half its course is in south Hertfordshire. Downstream, the Colne is the boundary between Buckinghamshire and London and finally between corners of Berkshire and Surrey. On leaving Hertfordshire, the watercourse splits off into several separate branches, a few of which rejoin it, and its main branch flows into the River Thames on the reach above Penton Hook Lock at Staines-upon-Thames.
The key characteristic of dry grasslands is that they have low-growing plants, causing the area to be quite open. They also have a mottled structure, which leads to a biome with sunny or semi-shaded areas. On top of that, their soil is relatively dry and nutrient-poor. There are, however, types of grasslands with a higher humus and nutrient content. The soil of these areas overlie acid rocks or deposits such as sands and gravels. Dry grasslands belong to different zones such as: the natural zonal or azonal/extrazonal vegetation and the semi-natural vegetation. Overall, there are 13 classes that fall under dry grasslands.
There is access from Moor Lane near the junction with Sandy Lodge Road.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Withey Beds . |
