Barn Hill Meadows

Also within

East Riding of Yorkshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Fluvial

Birds & fish recorded

Birds

Description

Area, 8.6 hectares 21.2 ac Description Barn Hill Meadows comprise seven fields lying just to the west of Howden, in the flood plain of the Old Derwent. The site is important for its herb rich, unimproved, neutral grassland, a habitat now uncommon in the intensively farmed landscape of Humberside and in lowland England generally. The fields have been traditionally managed for hay and several of them retain remnant ridge and furrow characteristics. Boundary hedgerows and ditches form an integral part of the site. The dominant grasses in the sward are red fescue Festuca rubra, sweet vernal grass Anthoxanthum odoratum, Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus and cock's foot Dactylis glomerata with false oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius locally abundant and quaking grass Briza media occurring sparsely. A particular feature of these fields is the abundance of great burnet Sanguisorba officinalis which occurs here with other species indicative of unimproved grassland, such as pepper saxifrage Silaum silaus and meadow crane's bill Geranium pratense. Characteristic species on drier ground also include oxeye daisy Leucanthemum vulgare and common knapweed Centaurea nigra while in wetter areas there are tall herb communities comprising meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, yellow loosestrife Lysimachia vulgaris, common meadow rue Thalictrum flavum and ragged-robin Silene flos-cuculi. Common reed Phragmites australis and sweet grass Glyceria spp., are locally dominant along ditches and in the damper furrows.

Species mentioned