Merrymeade Country Park

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This country park close to the centre of Brentwood consists of two large fields and an adjoining area of woodland, scrub and marsh with a stream running through it. It also has a pond.

The fields have a long history as grazing land and now are being cut annually for hay to encourage the wild flowers. Cuckoo flower, heath bedstraw, birdsfoot trefoil, pignut and devilsbit scabious grow in the meadows, which support good numbers of grassland butterflies in summer. They are surrounded by mature hedgerows that have some large oaks, with occasional hornbeam, field maple and hawthorn, providing shelter and nest sites for many birds. The entrance track also is lined with massive oaks of varying age.