Rodney Stoke National Nature Reserve

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Overview

Rodney Stoke NNR is an ash/lime woodland on the southern scarp of the Mendip Hills, five miles northwest of Wells. The woodlands are mostly broadleaved trees and the grassland is rooted in shallow soil above limestone bedrock. Many plants on the reserve are characteristic of ancient woodlands, such as wood anemone, nettled-leaved bellflower, meadow saffron and wood spurge, but the nationally rare purple gromwell can also be spotted in the woodlands. Continued small-scale coppicing and maintenance encourages these rare plants to flourish. Pipistrelle and noctule bats roost in the woods and 46 species of breeding birds have been recorded,including buzzard and summer visitors such as the spotted flycatcher. Conservation grazing of the grassland encourages species such as early-purple orchid, bird’s foot trefoil, marjoram, rockrose and salad burnet. In their turn, the many flowers support a range of insects, including many butterfly species such as marbled white, purple hairstreak, brown argus and grayling.

Location

Rodney Stoke

About the area

Somerset remains rural and unspoiled, and ever popular areas to visit are the limestone and red sandstone Mendip Hills rising to over 1,000 feet, and by complete contrast, to the south and southwest, the flat landscape of the Somerset Levels. Another popular spot, the Quantocks, once the haunt of poets Coleridge and Wordsworth, are noted for their gentle slopes, heather-covered moorland expanses and red deer.