Beales Meadows nature reserve

Habitat type: Wetland and grassland Size of Reserve: 6ha (15 acres) OS Map No. 111 Grid reference: SX 304 894 (main entrance) Best time to visit: Spring and summer
Cornwall Wildlife Trust encourages the use of environmentally friendly forms of transport wherever possible. Click on the locator map above to go to the National Cycle Network website and view an Ordnance Survey map of this reserve highlighting nearby cycle routes.

Directions:

Beales Meadows lie south of Langdon Cross and east of the village of North Petherwin. From the B3254, 3.5 miles (6km) north of Launceston, take a left turn (track) just before Langdon. Take the first track on the right and the meadows are just past the woodland on the left.

Access:

No public rights of way. Please contact theTrust before visiting this reserve.

Classification

Description:

The reserve is small but exemplifies a traditional farming landscape and provides an oasis for animals and plants in an area of intensive modern farming. The very attractive group of fields are divided by hedges.

Characteristic wildlife of this reserve:

The reserve is species-rich, characterised by common rather than rare species.

One of the best known of wild flowers, the buttercup, is found in abundance in the meadows. Both creeping and meadow buttercup flower here, blooming from April through to September. In folklore it was thought that the rich yellow of the buttercup provided better butter from cows grazing in buttercup-rich meadows.

Two clovers are common in the meadow. The creeping stems of white clover take root as they grow, enabling the plant to rapidly cover large areas. A whitish band usually encircles the base of each rounded leaflet and the white flowers, carried on long stalks, provide a valuable and abundant source of nectar for bees. Red clover is often planted as a fodder crop or is ploughed back in as ‘green manure’ because it fixes nitrogen from the soil. The narrow, point leaflets have a pale v-band and the stalkless, reddish-purple flowers grow from a pair of leaves. The delicate scent attracts butterflies, moths and bees, giving this clover its other name: ‘bee bread’. Smaller and less obvious is lesser trefoil - a yellow clover, thought to be the true Irish shamrock.

Other information:

Beales Meadows is an extremely good site for amateur naturalists wishing to see how much of Britain's lowlands would have appeared 50 - 100 years ago, together with associated flora and fauna.

The reserve was a gift from Miss Ward in 2002.

Cornwall Wildlife Trust Nature Reserves

List of reserves ... Armstrong Woods Bakers Pit Beales Meadow Bissoe Valley Bosvenning Common Cabilla and Redrice Woods Caer Brân Carn Moor Chûn Downs Churchtown Farm Chyverton Devichoys Wood Downhill Meadow Fal-Ruan Estuary Five Acres Fox Corner Greena Moor Halbullock Hawkes Wood Helman Tor Kemyel Crease Kennall Vale Lanvean Bottoms Loggan's Moor Loveny Lower Lewdon Luckett Maer Lake Nansmellyn Marsh North Predannack Downs Park Hoskyn Pendarves Wood Penlee Battery Phillips's Point Priddacombe Downs Prideaux Wood Quoit Heathland Redlake Cottage Meadows Ropehaven Cliffs Rosenannon Downs St Erth Pits St George's Island Swanvale Sylvia's Meadow Tamar Estuary Tincombe Trebarwith Tresayes Tywardreath Marsh Upton Meadow Upton Towans Ventongimps Moor Welcombe & Marsland Windmill Farm

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