Local Wildlife Site

Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation

Northwick Park and the Ducker Pool

Borough: Brent

Grade: Borough Grade I

Access: Free public access (part of site)

Area: 18.67 ha

Description

This interesting and varied site provides views up to the landmark Harrow Church spire. Habitats on the site include woodland, streams, ditches, a pool (originally the walled Harrow School swimming pool – The Ducker), as well as grassland. The site is bordered to the west by Northwick Park Hospital.Athough there is free access to much of the park, the integral golf course may only be entered via a public footpath. The Capital Ring passes through the woodland alongside The Ducker, but there is no access to the pool itself.Harrow Healthwalks’ project uses this site – a Walking the Way to Health (WHI) scheme; see link for details.

Wildlife

Ditches and streams running alongside the old hedgerows support water mint, brooklime, hard rush and false fox-sedge. A broad-margined footpath, part of the Capital Ring, follows the southern edge of the hospital grounds. To the west, the footpath runs as far as Watford Road through ivy-floored woodland, providing quiet habitat for birds, ferns, and fungi such as Dryad's saddle.South of this footpath is The Ducker. This secretive pool is overgrown with aquatic plants and scrub. In surrounding feeder-streams are found jointed rush, lesser reedmace, celery-leaved buttercup and water plantain.The golf course, recently constructed on landfill, includes areas of rough grassland and scrub in the roughs. Greater reedmace, great willowherb and brooklime have colonised one of the two large ponds on the course. The other pond is artificially dyed blue and of little wildlife interest.The grassland dividing Northwick Park Hospital and Northwick Park station is supports the interesting exotic plants caper spurge and rough bristle-grass. Common blue and small heath butterflies fly here.

Facilities

Waymarked walking route. The Capital Ring runs through the site.

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More information on GiGL’s SINC dataset can be found here.

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