Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

The River Brent between the Uxbridge Road and the canal is flanked by semi-natural woodland of willow and ash on either side, greatly enhancing its value for wildlife. Fennel pondweed grows in the water here. Along the north edge of the canal to the south west is a semi-natural woodland and grassland at Billet Hart's Park. An area of scrub and ruderal wasteland vegetation is included in the site to the extreme west. Three meadows south of the 'Hanwell Flight' series of locks - Blackberry Corner, Jubilee Meadow and Trumper's Field - are separated by outgrown hedges providing plenty of berries for birds in winter. The meadows are rich in wild flowers, including pignut, field wood-rush, bugle, common spotted orchid and bulbous buttercup. The grasslands are all cut annually for hay. There are patches of shorter acid grassland, which have developed on areas where the top layers of soil have been scraped off. These contain characteristic wild flowers such as sheep's sorrel and mouse-ear hawkweed. The pond in Trumper's Field is dominated by great reedmace, with a variety of other wetland plants present. The hedges around Trumpers Field contain hedge bedstraw and soft shield-fern. The railway cutting on the southern edge of the site has a few wild service-trees, and a number of locally rare ferns, including hart's-tongue, black spleenwort and rustyback, grow in abundance on the Three Bridges.

Facilities

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