Essex Wildlife Trust, Abbotts Hall Farm, Gt Wigborough, Colchester, Essex CO5 7RZ
Langdon
480 acres, Owned
Grid ref: TQ 659 874 (click for O/S map)
Last updated 20/7/2008
Just to the south-west of Basildon New Town lies Essex Wildlife Trust's largest inland reserve. Its 461 acres contains a mosaic of habitats: flower rich meadows, ponds, ancient and secondary woodland, and hundreds of former Plotland gardens. Its importance lies not in its rarities but in the abundance of wildlife once common in our countryside but now threatened by intensive farming and urban spread. 29 species of butterfly and over 350 flowering plants have been recorded to date, and the list grows every year. Badgers, foxes and weasels thrive in 'unimproved' meadows and orchids can be counted in their thousands.
Langdon Visitor Centre is the gateway to people's understanding of the social and natural history of this fascinating reserve, enabling thousands of visitors each year to explore what lies on their doorstep.
The reserve consists of four sections: from west to east these are Dunton Plotlands, Lincewood, Marks Hill and Willow Park.
Dunton today consists of the remains of plotland homes and gardens; wide grassy avenues bordered by hawthorn scrub and glades where wild grassland species compete with garden perennials. This patchwork of habitats is superb for butterflies, and a valuable resource for visiting school groups. Old orchards with pear, apple, plum and damson trees attract people and animals alike in autumn and the plotland ruins offer many basking sites for snakes and lizards. The Visitor Centre, with toilets and refreshments and the adjacent picnic area make Dunton an ideal starting point for your visit to the reserve.
The derelict plotland roads in Lincewood are accompanied by ancient and secondary woodland on higher ground, making it a good spot to look out for all three woodpecker species. Bluebells carpet the woodland floor in spring and a riot of garden escapes flower throughout the summer - goats rue, old roses and many others. An adjacent recreation ground has thousands of green-winged orchids in May.
Marks Hill, managed for the Trust by the Basildon Natural History Society, is a patchwork of ancient and secondary woodland,meadows and deserted plotlands. Stands of oak, ash and hornbeam are being brought back in to a coppice cycle to enhance the rich diversity of flowering plants. In spring there is an impressive display of bluebells, wood anemones and primrose. The grassland supports a large number of common spotted orchids. Several warbler species breed and in some years the nightingale. The boundary oaks are home to a colony of purple hairstreak butterflies and the locally rare cave spider lives in an old well.
Willow Park is the largest section of the reserve. Once a medieval deer park the unimproved hay meadows are bordered by ancient hedgerows and more recent mixed plantations, planted by the Commission for New Towns in the 1980s. The meadows and rough grassland are home to many flowering plants, including several species of orchid, some interesting sedges and the localised grizzled skipper butterfly. Seven ponds of varying sizes attract a wide range of dragonflies and damselflies.
Meadows are cut annually for hay, and some rougher grassland is cut biennially. Invading scrub is cleared from open areas. Overgrown woodland is thinned out and coppicing is being reintroduced into woods formerly managed in this way.
The reserve has nearly eight miles of bridleway and many more footpaths as well. The broad grassy rides are cut annually on rotation to ensure that margins remain graded.
The Plotlands¹ represent a unique period in the social history of Basildon. During the early 1900¹s agricultural land was auctioned off in small plots to people mainly from the east end of London. These little pieces of England allowed many families to enjoy weekends and holidays away from the city, gradually blossoming into a bustling estate of around 200 homes. Despite unmade roads and poor services, this close-knit community enjoyed fresh fruit and vegetables from their own gardens and the freedom of owning their own place in the countryside.
After the Second World War the drive for higher standards of living led to the designation of Basildon New Town in 1949 and many plotlanders saw their homes compulsory purchased. The area that was once the Dunton Hills Estate was designated as an open space for recreation, acknowledging the wildlife interest of the abandoned plotland gardens.
Following its purchase by Essex Wildlife Trust in 1989, the Estate is now managed for its social history as well as its wildlife. Stroll along the old avenues and capture the fragrance of garden plants now growing wild. And visit The Haven, home to the Mills family for two generations, now restored to its original condition and furnished in the style of the 1930s and 1940s, allowing visitors to step back in time.
Visiting
4.5 miles east of M25 junction 29 between the A127 and the A13. Routes are signposted from the north from the B148 turning off the A127 and from the south from the A13 follow the brown-and-white duck signs.
Laindon station on the Fenchurch StreetSouthend line is less than 800m from the reserve. Frequent bus services run from Basildon town centre to Laindon station and to Langdon Hills.
Reserve accessible at all times. Visitor Centre open 9 am - 5 pm except Mondays.
Something of interest all the year round: spring for breeding birds and early flowers such as primroses; summer for orchids and other flowers, and for birdsong, autumn for fruit and berries and for late butterflies; winter to see huge flocks of migrant thrushes and perhaps a long-eared owl.