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Location: Marsh Gibbon, BuckinghamshireOS: SP 64682018
Habitat: Lowland wet meadows
Long Herdon and Grange Meadows are two adjacent hay meadows situated close to Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire.
The two meadows form a flat expanse of grassland that lies alongside the River Ray and is seasonally flooded by River Ray.
Both have been traditionally managed through the centuries for hay and they are still cut for hay each summer, and are then grazed by cattle in the autumn. They are wonderfully rich in meadow flowers – including the occasional Green-winged Orchid Orchis morio.
Long Herdon is owned by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), and Grange Meadows are owned by Plantlife.
Due to the way they have been sympathetically farmed, Grange Meadows support a wealth of wildlife. There are 111 recorded flowering plant species present including Ragged Robin Silene flos-cuculi, Brown Sedge Carex disticha, Sharp Flowered Rush Juncus acutiflorus, Tubular Water Dropwort Oenanthe fistulosa, Common Knapweed Centaurea nigra, Greater Spearwort Ranunculus lingua, Pepper-saxifrage Silaum silaus and Great Burnet Sanguisorba officinalis.
Other wildlife supported by this habitat includes damselflies, brimstone and a number of butterflies including marbled white, meadow brown, small heath and small skipper.
Also notable are the numbers of wintering birds including curlew, redshank and lapwings.
From the M40, take the A41 to Aylesbury and approximately 6 miles beyond Bicester turn left at Piddington to Marsh Gibbon (at the second sign to Marsh Gibbon). Park on the verge beyond Grange Farm on the right, taking care not to obstruct gateways. Access to the meadows is then by foot, across the concrete yard and through the gate to the field.
The nearest train station is Bicester Town, which is 5 miles from the reserve.
The meadows are cut for hay each summer when the plants have flowered and set seed. Then cattle graze them until winter, when flooding will provide essential feeding grounds for wildfowl and wading birds. Traditional management practices will continue to be used on the meadows, which will remain free from fertilisers, and pesticides.
Grange Meadows are managed on behalf of Plantlife by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. The purchase of this nature reserve was made possible by Timotei.
Wildflowers blooming at Grange Meadows
Knapweed and Great Burnet at Grange Meadows
Close up of Ragged Robin flowers at Grange Meadows
Common Meadow-rue at Grange Meadows
Ragged Robin and Great Burnet wildflowers pictured at Grange Meadows
24 Plantlife
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