{@PageHighlight}
DescriptionA large area of flood meadows, one of the richest wetlands remaining in SE England. Much of it is a Sussex Wildlife Trust nature reserveContact information
Telephone: 01273 492630 Opening information: Always open (unless flooded!) but access is along the footpath between Amberley and Greatham bridge only.
Prices: free
Facilities and additional informationAdditional informationOutstandingly rich ditches, full of flowering plants and all sorts of insects and other invertebrates. Breeding and wintering wildfowl and waders. This area was the scene of a famous victory in the early 1970s when it was the first site ever to be saved from destruction through agricultural drainage because of its wildlife. A coalition of local people, the Sussex Wildlife Trust, and RSPB fought and won a landmark Public Inquiry. If they had failed this area would now be growing potatoes rather than dragonflies. Times move on and local farmers now help the Trust to manage this area for wildlife of all kinds.The ditch pattern is a relict of the mediaeval strip fields. Note that this site can flood in wet winters - the derelict raised bog in the middle of the site stands as an island when this happens. Centuries of peat cutting ended in the 1930s. |