About the reserve

In early summer the field is a colourful display with yellow rattle covering large parts of the open grassland. Yellow rattle is a hemiparasite on grass and helps to suppress it allowing flowering herbs to thrive. The meadow contains a mix of flora including yellow oat-grass, cowslip, bird's-foot trefoil, oxeye daisy and agrimony. There are a few areas of more rank grassland vegetation with cow parsley and dock, which get an additional cut in the year. The field is particularly good for grassland butterflies such as meadow brown and skippers.

A very small pond (created in 1979) exists in the middle of the grassland area and is good for breeding amphibians and is also used by large red damselflies. A small wet flush near the top of the meadow contains rush. The coppiced area contains some ash with a mostly hazel understorey. Ground flora contains bluebell, wild garlic and dog's mercury. Golden saxifrage and water avens are amongst the species closer to the river. Common woodland birds are present in and around the site.