COUNTRY LIFE
Plantations at Bouldnor
Land East of Yarmouth was the rather clumsy title
given to the rough cliffs and pastures of what we
now call Ningwood and Bouldnor on the Isle of
Wight. The site was described as ‘quite derelict,
inhabited by fine vipers’ but highly regarded for
its invertebrates. At the time the land was being
divided up for ‘small villas’. The Trust established
its Ningwood nature reserve in 2002. Purchased
from a sympathetic landowner with the help of a
local benefactor, the flowery and heathy grasslands
have been cut out of the scrubs that once
threatened to overwhelm them.
Ningwood is also the last place in Britain where
the reddish buff moth survives. This moth needs
pastures rich in plants of saw-wort, which grow
among the dyer’s greenweed and flea sedge.
The abundant violets support the Island’s only
population of small pearl-bordered fritillary
butterflies. Just to the west of Ningwood is
Bouldnor where in recent months the Trust has
established the Bouldnor nature reserve. This
is our largest reserve on the Island. It offers
opportunities to revive the lost clifftop views of the
western Solent and provides a base to introduce
the next generation of children on the Island to
wild nature.
Langstone Harbour was one of three coastal
wetlands in Hampshire to be recommended as a
nature reserve. In 1912, the great natural harbour
was a landscape of broad expanses of intertidal
muds and saltings grading into shingle banks and
grazing marshes.
Today the landscape is very different; it is
polarised between what has been subsumed into
the growing towns and cities and what remains
naturally intact. Even before the establishment of
the Trust, there were naturalists who recognised
the importance of Farlington Marshes.
Farlington became one of the Trust’s first
res erves in the early 1960s. It was originally looked
after for a private farmer and then leased from the
City Council. These days Farlington is the great
grazing marsh of the harbour – a high tide and foul
weather refuge for the myriad of birds that depend
on the rich harbour wetlands. During Rothschild’s
time, Farlington Marshes were valued but were
relatively unremarkable, since such marshes
abounded around the harbour edges. Today all
but Farlington are gone: lost beneath the urban
growth of south Hampshire. With sea level rise,
and a failing sea wall, even the future of Farlington
remains uncertain.
Small pearl-bordered
fritillary by Ken Dolbear
Farlington Marshes by Peter Emery
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www.visitislandlife.com
St Catherine’s Hill would have been well known to
Rothschild’s naturalists as it is close to Winchester
Railway Station and has been much visited by
the scholars of Winchester College. The Hill was
selected for its butterflies and wildflowers. A
visitor to the Hill in the early 20th century would
barely recognise it today. The once bare hillsides
are now clothed with trees and bounded by a Park
and Ride, a waste water treatment works and the
infamous Twyford Down cutting.
The Trust established the St Catherine’s Hill
nature reserve in 1976, and has progressively cut
back scrub and grazed the ancient grasslands. The
wildlife remains exceptional with good seasons
bringing clouds of butterflies including chalkhill
blues and brown argus. The steeper slopes support
great carpets of rockrose and late summer drifts
of dropwort and scabious. St Catherine’s Hill is
also the western gateway of the newly-made South
Downs National Park. Over the next century, the
challenge is to safeguard a traditionally farmed
landscape in what is also the gateway to the busy
city of Winchester.
In an age of instant makeovers,
the long-term vision of
Rothschild and his successors
may appear somewhat
uncomfortably out of place.
To a naturalist, 100 years may
mean numberless generations
of short-lived fruit flies or the
blink of an eye to a veteran
yew. When we care for nature,
we need to think in timescales
meaningful to all the living
things we work for.
The Wildlife Trusts arose
from the vision of a small
group of people, and over the
years that vision has proved
sound. As time has passed, we
have learnt more about what is
important, but we still need to
focus our efforts. Our approach
has become more systematic
and more scientific, which is
reflected in initiatives such as
our Living Landscapes. The
visions of the past continue
to inspire the work of today.
What Rothschild started had a
lasting value – a value that we
are working to carry forward
through the generations.