This site is made up, as its name suggests, of two distinct parts; it is found just behind the Asda store in Colindale.Grove Park was until recently a sports ground and lies to the north of the road of the same name. During the 1990s, tipping raised the level and it was then turned into a small park. The main part now consists of amenity grassland, but with a broad strip of wildlife interest around its edges. On the southern side, this is at the same level as the road, but on the eastern and northern sides, and to a lesser extent the western side, steep banks slope down to the neighbouring land; it is on these slopes that the chief wildlife interest is found.To the north of Grove Park, Capitol Way bends round behind the Asda car park, and on the left hand side, a belt of elder and hawthorn, with bramble and nettle beneath, shields a small stream. This is the Tramway Brook, a rather polluted tributary of the Silk Stream, which it meets just beyond the Edgware Road in Colindale. It was named after the Colindale Tram Depot on the Edgware Road. The stream cannot be seen on the right hand side, as it has been culverted to pass under Asda.Upstream, the brook passes behind an industrial estate and can only really be viewed again from Stag Lane by walking into the car park of the Stag Lane Medical Centre or along the access road beyond to the Brent Sikh Centre.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Grove Park and Tramway Brook
Borough: Brent
Grade: Local
Access: Free public access (part of site)
Area: 0.47 ha
Description
Wildlife
The sloping grassy areas of Grove Park include abundant false oat-grass, barren brome, cock's-foot, cat's-tail, and rough meadow-grass. The flora includes lesser burdock, spear thistle, the poisonous hemlock, goat's beard, rough hawksbeard, hoary cress and curled dock. Lombardy poplars line the foot of the eastern slope, and trees and shrubs growing round the edges include apple, hawthorn, Swedish whitebeam, elder and bramble.Song thrushes and grey squirrels are seen among the trees and scrub of the Tramway Brook, and this area is likely to provide nesting and foraging sites for a range of birds and insects.Near the Medical Centre, the banks are covered by bramble, creeping thistle and hawthorn, with some elder, mugwort and ivy. Further east, near the Sikh Centre, the banks are almost completely covered by nettle, with cow parsley, black horehound, herb-Robert and red valerian. There is a fine old oak near the stream.Facilities
No information available
Teasel © Gavin Kingcombe
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