Noak Bridge NR
20ac/8ha
Grid ref: TQ 696 906
Updated 31/12/2023.
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This is a former plotland area that has scrubbed over and is now in the care of Basildon Council, supported by the Noak Bridge Nature Reserve Society. The woodland is mainly hawthorn scrub with some mature oak and ash, a few wild service trees and – showing its plotland past – some cultivated fruit trees.
With its open flower meadows and many ponds it is excellent for butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies in summer. In spring visiting warblers join the resident woodpeckers to nest. The ponds and damp ditches support frogs, great crested newts and grass snakes.
It has a network of informal paths.
Visiting
Access via footpath from Eastfield Road. Leave the A127 at its junction with the A176 and at the roundabout and take the exit (signposted Noak Bridge) to South Wash Road: Eastfield Road is the second turning on the right.
Regular buses from Chelmsford to Lakeside run through Noak Bridge.
Accessible at all times.
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