Local Wildlife Site

Wildlife

Squirrels Lake is a large water-body with plenty of emergent and floating vegetation as well as a small island, located in the grounds of a private residence. Adjacent to the lake are horse-grazed meadows with rough grassland and scrub. These can all be viewed from Harrow Weald Park. Harrow Weald Park itself is a former landscaped garden, with some fine specimen trees and areas of re-grown woodland and scrub. The considerable quantity of dead wood, both standing and fallen, provides valuable habitat for fungi, insects and hole-nesting birds. All Saints Churchyard is an attractive, sheltered churchyard with significant old meadow features. Managed by a lay-preacher, its grasslands support a notable range of plants including grey sedge, both wild and barren strawberries and meadow saxifrage, the latter being very scarce in London. Harrow Weald Cemetery is an extensive well-managed cemetery, bordered with fine hedgerows with trees, including several large sessile oaks. To the south-east of the cemetery is a fenced, private area of scrubby woodland, including the source of the Wealdstone Brook, providing sheltered low-disturbance habitats likely to be used by birds and mammals. The Santway is a densely overgrown landscaped woodland with pond. Hermitage Wood, in the grounds of a private nursing home, is a small strip of woodland of mostly exotic trees. South of the wood is extensive rough grassland dominated by tufted hair-grass, mixed with bramble scrub. The combination of woodland and grassland here is valuable for insects. Bentley Day Centre Wood is a medium-sized woodland plot managed for wildlife by a volunteer warden. Grey willow, wild cherry and hazel occur here in the mixed understorey. This was a former site for violet helleborine, which is very rare plant in London, but it has not been recorded here for many years. A small area in the grounds of Bentley Day Centre is managed as a 'wildlife meadow'. This, and more extensive rough grassland with false oat-grass, adds to the habitats of the area. Woodlands in the grounds of Bentley Wood High School for Girls include significant amounts of oak and hornbeam, suggesting an ancient origin, as well as secondary and planted trees and shrubs, seasonally flooded areas, and acid elements. A thick hedgerow of mature oaks and mixed scrub on Uxbridge Road roadside verge; at the east end elm and hawthorn are trimmed into rectangular garden hedges.

Facilities

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