Introduction
The four old hay meadows that make up this site are the largest of their kind in Somerset. The grassland is characterised by sweet vernal grass, crested dog’s tail and French oat grass, along with cowslip and green-winged orchid.
This type of grassland is rare in England, and Somerset is one of its major strongholds. 18ha are found at Barrington Hill, and this has recently been extended by a further 21 hectares which are now under restoration.
Large outgrown hedgerows and ponds add to the sites biodiversity.
Habitats
Lowland hay meadow
The meadows are a rare type of species-rich lowland grassland on neutral clay soils. In spring they are carpeted by cowslips and green-winged orchids. They have a rich flora even for normal lowland grassland sites, with a current species list of 145 higher plants. This site has possibly the largest population of green-winged orchids in England with over 77,000 flowering heads being counted in 2017.
Hedgerows
The wide out-grown hedgerows found on this site are maintained through reduced rotational cutting regimes. This allows the hedges to grow in a more natural way, providing a scrub habitat beneficial to birds such as whitethroat and nightingale – the latter having been heard singing in recent years.
Key species
Meadow plants
These meadows are very rich in grassland plants, and as well as the large numbers of previously mentioned green-winged orchids, the fields also contain early purple, common twayblade, autumn ladies tresses and common spotted orchids.
Other species of note are the nationally scarce French oat-grass, the small fern adder’s tongue, and corky-fruited water dropwort. The latter is a scarce plant that is restricted to wet meadows and damp areas.
Other typical plants found in these meadows include meadow barley, Yorkshire fog, common knapweed, meadow buttercup, red clover, lesser trefoil and selfheal.
Insects
Although the insects on this site have not been surveyed to any great extent, there are good populations of butterflies including marbled white, meadow brown, and common blue.
Dormice
Dormice are known to have nested in the outgrown hedgerows.
Further info
Somerset NNRs:
Blog post:
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