Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

The wide railway cutting contains a good variety of high quality habitats. The north-facing slope is clothed in woodland of birch and aspen, while the south-facing slope has a mosaic of scrub and herb-rich grassland. Due to variation in the soil and drainage, several different grassland types are present. Close to the track there is gorse scrub and carpets of moss, while further up the slope there are plants such as salad burnet, field scabious, wild parsnip, burnet saxifrage and wild strawberry, among a host of commoner wild flowers. In a few damp areas, ragged-robin, false fox-sedge, greater bird's-foot-trefoil and hemp agrimony occur. The land lying over the tunnel contains a mixture of scrub, tall herbs and rough grassland, with mature woodland of oak and ash at the northern end. The woodland has a well-developed shrub layer, including wild cherry, blackthorn, holly, elder, hawthorn and grey willow. Also included in the site are sections of Roxeth Park and Orley Farm School grounds, with large, good quality hedgerows, almost certainly old field system remnants. These contain some fine old oaks. In the south of Roxeth Park is an area of rough grassland to the south-west where meadow vetchling and timothy are found. There are damper areas within this grassland where yellow iris and soft and hard rush grow.

Facilities

No information available