Hartstongue - North Devon Nature Reserves

This distinctive type of damp pasture is generally found on commons, as a component of lowland fen, or in undeveloped corners of otherwise intensively farmed landscapes.

What is it? This moist, often tussocky (long and thick) grassland is found on flat or gently sloping land on peaty mineral soils in areas with higher rainfall (i.e. the west of the country), or on wetter peatlands in East Anglia. A variety of flowers such as meadow buttercup, devil’s-bit scabious, meadow thistle, ragged-Robin, water mint and self-heal are found with purple moor-grass and sharp-flowered rush. Where the soil is particularly low in nutrients, the vegetation becomes more heathy, with cross-leaved heath and tormentil. Scrub is common and the pasture is often bordered by hedgerows.

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/habitats/grassland/purple-moor-grass-and-rush-pasture

: Last Updated: 05 January 2022; Hits: 1894

A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve

An ancient woodland to explore, with added panorama of the North Devon landscape.

About the reserve

There's much to see both within and looking out from the reserve. Take a path under mature oaks, ashes and hazel coppice to discover glades of spring woodland flowers, while the level hilltop location, just a few miles south of Barnstaple, gives wide views of the surrounding countryside.

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/uppacott-wood

: Last Updated: 15 December 2021; Hits: 1647

A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve

A small (3 hectare) oasis which buzzes with activity. This reserve is important for its range of wetland habitats. The great pond-sedge and reed that covers much of the reserve is a rare habitat across the west county. Dragonflies and butterflies are extremely abundant here. The reserve is mainly flat but is rough and sometimes wet under foot. Please contact the Trust for disabled access information.

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/swanpool-marsh

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: Last Updated: 22 November 2021; Hits: 1439

A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve

Devon Wildlife Trust's latest nature reserve. A must for bird watchers. No access at present to the nature reserve but great views of it and its wildlife are available from a public road/path…

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/horsey-island

: Last Updated: 22 January 2021; Hits: 1204

North Devon Coast AONB Braunton's Great Field truly lives up to its name. It is treasured as one of only two surviving medieval open strip field systems in England and is believed to date way back the 1200s. Here you can walk through a medieval landscape; covering an area of around 350 acres (equivalent to 200 football pitches). Such fields were the norm in medieval England but virtually all have since been lost or modified.

History This huge field would have been used by hundreds of landworkers, busily farming the food they needed to support their families. The land was farmed in narrow strips, most comprising of 22 yards (one chain) by one furlong (220 yards) in length, which interestingly makes an acre, which it was said was the amount an Oxen could plough in a day. Clusters of strips were given field names such as Gallowell, Pitlands, Longhedgelands, etc.

In 1840 it was recorded that the Great Field was divided into some 600 strips in 60 different ownerships. Today the land is worked by just a small number of farmers but clues to the field's ancient heritage are easy to spot. Although some of the distinct landsherds (small mounds of earth separating the strips) have been lost through modern farming methods together with the Bond Stones which marked division in ownership, many landsherds and the furlough boundary tracks still remain in place.

https://www.northdevon-aonb.org.uk/explore/braunton-great-field