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Hawksmere Springs

4.5ac/2ha  

Grid ref: TQ 508 993


Updated 31/12/2023.

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This small Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve is mostly ancient unimproved pasture, part of it marshy, with a tiny remnant of ancient damp woodland and a boundary stream.

The reserve is extremely rich in flowers. In the meadows grow cowslip, betony, agrimony, sneezewort, common fleabane and a profusion of knapweed and meadowsweet. Yellow rattle and ragged robin can also be found. In spring, bluebells and wild garlic (ramsons) carpet the small wood.

Willow warblers and other warblers join the resident birds in summer and butterflies and other insects are numerous.

The meadows are grazed by sheep to keep them in optimum condition for wild flowers.

Visiting

Access is by footpath from Tawney Lane, from about 400m east of Little Tawney Hall where there is a small 'Hawksmere Springs' sign on the roadside. Go down the embankment slope and along the grass headland with the stream on your left until you come to a bridge, leading to the reserve entrance on the other side of the stream.

Accessible at all times.

May and June for birdsong; July and August for butterflies, when the meadows are in full bloom.

Unsuitable for wheelchairs or those with walking difficulties.

Please keep your dog on a lead on the access path and when sheep are grazing on the reserve.

Take care when parking where indicated on the verge because it is narrow and steep.


© Glyn Baker