This site includes the Hogsmill river corridor from Berrylands station south to Malden Lane, comprising a varied mosaic of old floodplain habitats. Drier habitats include a small area of acid grassland, as well as the Hogsmill Wood nature reserve, adjacent to the A3 and managed by the London Wildlife Trust.Most of the site is within a Local Nature Reserve. Kingston Health Walks project uses this site – a Walking the Way to Health (WHI) scheme; see link for details.
Local Wildlife Site
Accessible Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation
Hogsmill Valley
Borough: Kingston upon Thames
Grade: Borough Grade I
Access: Free public access (all/most of site)
Area: 32.8 ha
Description
Wildlife
The majority of the site is open species-rich grassland, and there are small pockets of willow woodland over sedge beds. The grassland includes many locally uncommon plants such as grass vetchling, devil's-bit scabious, pepper-saxifrage, yellow-rattle, square-stemmed St John's-wort, ragged-robin, sneezewort, betony and meadowsweet. The sedge beds in the willow woodland support one of London's few populations of slender tufted-sedge.The Hogsmill River rises from springs in the chalk of the North Downs and has a diverse aquatic flora here, including horned pondweed and hemlock water-dropwort. Breeding birds include bullfinch, spotted flycatcher, lesser spotted woodpecker, lesser whitethroat, grey wagtail and kingfisher. Water voles occur rarely on the site. There is also an important fish community.Facilities
Information; toilet; playgrounds; waymarked walking route. The London LOOP runs the length of the Hogsmill Valley.
Hogsmill Open Space, Old Malden © Mathew Frith
River Hogsmill at Six Acre Meadow © Marie-Claire Edwards
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