Bedelands Farm Nature Reserve
It is best known for its seven archaic flower meadows: Watford Meadow, Wet Meadow, Big Field, House Field, Mill Pond Field, Old Furze Common and Valebridge Common Field. Each has its own different history and character (e.g. TQ 320 210).
Watford Meadow and Wet Meadow lie to the west and have boardwalks. Buttercup and ox-eye daisy dominate visually, but yellow rattle is also abundant. It hosts the scarce grass rivulet moths and dormice and there are rare plants such as ragged robin and sneezewort.
The three eastern meadows were part of Valebridge Common (TQ 321 210) until its enclosure. Dyer's Greenweed is abundant on Valebridge Common Field. In the east of Valebridge Pond (TQ 322 212), amongst the water hemlock, are many insects including cardinal beetles, longhorn beetles, longhorn moths, scorpion flies, snail-killing flies, craneflies, empididea flies, shiny leaf beetles, noble chafer beetles, soldier beetles, dung beetles, Ichneumon wasps, mining bees, damselflies, cuckoo bees, butterflies and moths. Valebridge Meadow was designated a Coronation Meadow in 2013.
Big Wood, Watford Wood, Long Wood, and Leylands Wood also are part of the Nature Reserve. They have many bluebells and other flowers, which host a diverse range of insects and arachnids, including wasp beetle, burnet companion moth, yellow crab spider, cucumber green spider (often near hedges) and a host of others.
References
- ^ "Bedelands Farm Nature Reserve". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ "Map of Bedelands Farm Nature Reserve". Local Nature Reserves. Natural England. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ "Bedelands Farm Local Nature Reserve". Burgess Hill Town Council. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
- ^ Bangs, David (2018). THE LAND OF THE BRIGHTON LINE: A Field Guide to the Middle Sussex and Southeast Surrey Weald. Farlington, Portsmouth: Bishops Printers. ISBN 978-0-9548638-2-1.
- ^ "Bedelands local nature reserve". Burgess Hill Green Circle Network. Retrieved 2023-08-20.