Norfolk Wildlife Trust

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) is one of 46 wildlife trusts covering Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Alderney. Founded in 1926, it is the oldest of all the trusts. It has over 35,500 members and eight local groups and it manages more than fifty nature reserves and other protected sites. It also gives conservation advice to individuals and organisations, provides educational services to young people on field trips and organises entertainment and information events at nature reserves. The NWT reserves include twenty-six Sites of Special Scientific Interests, nine national nature reserves, twelve Nature Conservation Review sites, sixteen Special Areas of Conservation, twelve Special Protection Areas, eleven Ramsar sites, two local nature reserves, four Geological Conservation Review sites and five which are in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Norfolk is a county in East Anglia. It has an area of and a population as of mid-2017 of 898,400. The top level of local government is Norfolk County Council with seven second tier councils: Breckland District Council, Broadland District Council, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, King's Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, North Norfolk District Council, Norwich City Council and South Norfolk District Council. The county is bounded by Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and the North Sea.

|100px|alt=Alderfen Broad

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|Ramsar, SAC, SPA, SSSI

|This area of fenland peat has open water, carr woodland and reedswamp. Breeding birds include the great crested grebe, water rail, common grasshopper warbler and reed warbler.

! scope="row"| Barton Broad

|100px|alt=Barton Broad

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, NNR, Ramsar,

|The Broad was created in the Middle Ages by digging for peat and the River Ant was later diverted through it, which allowed navigation. It has diverse aquatic plants and fish, and the surrounding fens have nationally rare plants and invertebrates.

|100px|alt=Booton Common

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|SAC, SSSI

|The common has diverse habitats, including wet calcareous fen grassland, acid heath, tall fen, alder woodland and a stream. Wet hollows are floristically rich and there are a variety of breeding birds.

! scope="row"| Cley Marshes

|100px|alt=Cley Marshes

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|Holt

|align="center"|

|AONB,

|This is the NWT's oldest reserve, purchased in 1926 as a bird sanctuary. It has saline lagoons, a shingle beach, grazing marshes and reedbeds, which support many wintering and migrating wildfowl and waders.

|100px|alt=Cockshoot Broad

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, NNR Ramsar,

|The water quality of this broad is very high and it has large beds of water lilies, which provide habitats for many insects, including red-eyed and variable damselflies.

|100px|alt=East Winch Common

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|King's Lynn

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This site is mainly wet acid heath on peat, and it is dominated by heather and cross-leaved heath. There are many wet hollows, which have diverse fen and mire flora, and areas of young woodland.

! scope="row"| East Wretham Heath

|100px|alt=East Wretham Heath

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|Thetford

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, SAC, SPA, SSSI

|The principal ecological interest of this site lies in areas of Breckland grassland and two meres, which are supplied by ground water and fluctuate irregularly. These conditions have led to unusual plant communities which are tolerant of alternate wetting and drying, such as reed canary grass and amphibious bistort.

! scope="row"| Foxley Wood

|100px|alt=Foxley Wood

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|Dereham

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, NNR, SSSI

|This is the largest area of ancient woodland in the county. The flora is diverse, with more than 250 species recorded, and invertebrates include several rare butterflies, such as the purple emperor and white admiral.

! scope="row"| Hethel Old Thorn

|100px|alt=Hethel Old Thorn

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|This is the smallest wildlife trust nature reserve in Britain, consisting of one ancient hawthorn tree, which may date to the thirteenth century. In 1755 its girth was recorded as and it has now decayed to a much smaller size, but it is still healthy.

|100px|alt=Hickling Broad

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|Norwich

|align="center"|

|AONB, GCR, NNR, Ramsar,

|This is the largest of The Broads, and it has large breeding populations of waterbirds. Rare insects include the swallowtail and Norfolk hawker dragonfly, and there are mammals such as red deer and Chinese water deer.

|100px|alt=Hoe Rough

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|Dereham

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This is a mixture of grassland and wet fen. Around 200 species of invertebrates have been recorded, including the rare great crested newt. Notable plants include green-winged and early marsh orchids.

|100px|alt=Holme Dunes

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|Hunstanton

|align="center"|

|AONB, NCR, NNR, Ramsar, SAC, SPA, SSSI

|100px|alt=Honeypot Wood

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|Dereham

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This is an ancient coppiced wood on calcareous soil. It has a rich ground layer, which is dominated by dog's mercury, and other flora include greater butterfly-orchid and broad-leaved helleborine. A total of 208 plant species have been recorded.

! scope="row"| Lolly Moor

|100px|alt=Lolly Moor

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|Dereham

|align="center"|YES

|This site has wet grassland, scrub and alder carr. Flora include cowslip, lesser celandine, southern marsh orchid, marsh helleborine and common twayblade.

|100px|alt=Lower Wood

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This ancient wood on chalky boulder clay has a diverse ground flora with uncommon species such as wood spurge, early-purple orchid, common twayblade, ramsons, water avens and woodruff.

! scope="row"| Martham Broad

|100px|alt=Martham Broad

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|Great Yarmouth

|align="center"|YES

|NNR, Ramsar,

|100px|alt=Narborough Railway Line

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|King's Lynn

|align="center"|

|SSSI

|This nineteenth-century embankment is probably the most ecologically diverse chalk grassland site in the county, with many flowering plants which attract a wide range of butterflies. There is also a variety of mosses and molluscs.

! scope="row"| New Buckenham Common

|100px|alt=New Buckenham Common

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This unimproved grassland is traditionally managed by grazing. It has the largest colony of green-winged orchids in the county, and there are a stream and pool which have aquatic plants.

! scope="row"| Pigneys Wood

|100px|alt=Pigneys Wood

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|North Walsham

|align="center"|YES

|LNR

|This wood has 40 different species of trees, most of which have been planted since 1993, but there is a 450-year old oak. There is also a range of birds, butterflies and dragonflies. Mammals include otters, water voles and European badgers.

|100px|alt=Ranworth Broad

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|NCR,

|100px|Ringstead Downs

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|Hunstanton

|align="center"|YES

|AONB, SSSI

|This is a dry chalk valley which was carved out by glacial meltwaters It is species-rich as it has never been ploughed, and it is the largest surviving area of chalk downland surviving in the county. The butterflies are diverse.

! scope="row"| Roydon Common and Grimston Warren

|100px|alt=Grimston Warren

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|King's Lynn

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, NNR, Ramsar, SAC, SSSI

|The common is described by Natural England as "one of the best examples in Britain of a lowland mixed valley mire". It has diverse habitats, including wet acid heath, calcareous fen and dry heath on acid sands. There are rare plants, birds and insects, including the black darter dragonfly.

! scope="row"| Salthouse Marshes

|100px|alt=Salthouse Marshes

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|Holt

|align="center"|YES

|AONB,

|100px|alt=Scarning Fen

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|Dereham

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, SAC,

|This small reserve has chalky valley mire, carr and grassland. Twenty-nine nationally scarce invertebrates have been recorded, and it is the only site in the county for the small red damselfly. There are a number of rare plants, including liverworts and mosses.

|100px|alt=Sparham Pools

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|These former gravel pits are now pools which have several islands. Wildfowl include shoveler, gadwall, mallard and tufted duck. Sand martins and kingfishers breed on the banks and common terns on the islands.

|100px|alt=Syderstone Common

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|King's Lynn

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|The common has heath and grassland areas in the valley of the River Tat. Pools on sand and gravel provide suitable habitats for five species of breeding amphibians, including the nationally rare natterjack toad.

! scope="row"| Thompson Common

|100px|alt=Thompson Common

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|Attleborough

|align="center"|YES

|LNR, NCR SAC,

|This grassland site in the valley of a tributary of the River Wissey has a number of pingos, damp and water filled depressions formed by the melting of ice at the end of the last glaciation. It also has a lake called Thompson Water which, together with its surrounding reedswamp, is important for breeding birds.

! scope="row"| Thorpe Marshes

|100px|alt=Thorpe Marshes

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|Norwich

|align="center"|

|This site has a lake called St Andrew's Broad, which hosts waterbirds such as great crested grebes, cormorants, tufted ducks, gadwalls and grey herons. There are also flower rich marshes, and dragonflies and damselflies inhabit the many dykes.

|100px|alt=Thursford Wood

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|Fakenham

|align="center"|YES

|The oak trees in this wood are some of the oldest in the county, and some may be over 500 years old. The site also has a variety of woodland birds, as well as many ferns and fungi.

|100px|alt=Upton Broad and Marshes

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|Norwich

|align="center"|YES

|NCR, Ramsar,

|This is described by Natural England as "an outstanding example of unreclaimed wetland and grazing marsh". Its rich invertebrate fauna includes eighteen species of freshwater snail, and an outstanding variety of dragonflies and damselflies, including the nationally rare Norfolk hawker.

! scope="row"| Wayland Wood

|100px|alt=Wayland Wood

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|Thetford

|align="center"|YES

|SSSI

|This semi-natural wood on wet calcareous boulder clay is managed by coppicing. Breeding birds include woodcocks, lesser spotted woodpeckers and nuthatches.

! scope="row"| Weeting Heath

|100px|alt=Weeting Heath

|

|Brandon

|align="center"|

|NCR, NNR, SAC,

|This grass and lichen heath is grazed by rabbits. It has a high density of breeding birds, including stone-curlews. One arable field is reserved for uncommon Breckland plants.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links