A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
Leave the city centre to explore the fields, cherry orchards and wooded lanes of Ludwell Valley Park. Follow trails along the Northbrook stream or climb to the top of Pynes Hill for stunning views over Exeter.
About the reserve
Ludwell Valley Park is one of six Exeter Valley Parks managed by Devon Wildlife Trust.
The park is a working farm on the edge of the busy city of Exeter. Many of the fields provide free access to people wishing to enjoy this tranquil setting.
Next to the farmland is Wonford Playing Fields where there is space to kick a ball around, jog with the dog, or take a leisurely stroll beside the Northbrook. The valley is a real wildlife haven. Harvest mice nest in the fields, whitethroats and blackcaps skulk in the hedgerows and orange-tip and painted lady butterflies feed on the wildflowers.
Getting around the park
Access is from Ludwell Lane, Topsham Road, Parkland Drive and Pynes Hill. There is a range of circular walks.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/ludwell-valley-park
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
At more than 800 years of age, Cricklepit Mill is Exeter's last working watermill. Surrounded by a unique urban wildlife garden, Cricklepit Mill also serves as Devon Wildlife Trust's headquarters.
Cricklepit Mill offers you a place to escape from it all in the very heart of the busy city of Exeter.
The 18th century watermill sits in an extensive wildlife garden. The place has a secretive feel - many long term Exeter residents tell us they never knew it existed!
Explore Exeter from here
The mill is the perfect place to begin to discover Exeter. Start here and then explore on foot or by bike. Exeter's historic Quayside is only five minutes away by foot, while the beautiful Valley Parks are within a pleasant 20 minute stroll.
For the more adventurous a River Exe Wild Walk takes you on a six-mile exploration of the local landscape including Devon Wildlife Trust's Old Sludge Bed and Exe Reed Bed nature reserves.
Cricklepit Mill is the home of Devon Wildlife Trust.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/cricklepit-mill
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Exeter City Council The historic Exeter Ship Canal first opened to shipping in 1566 and was the first canal to be built in Britain since Roman times. The Canal runs through an area of outstanding and protected natural beauty and is a fantastic site to tie-up for a few days.
You can visit the Exeter canal and base your boat there for a few days, or all year round.
The canal basin and quay are an historic gateway to the city and provides ample parking with easy access to sports, recreation and shops.
This area is a mix of old and new building and provides moorings for a wide range of vessels.
A walk or cycle along the tow path brings you to the Double Locks pub, or the Turf Hotel at the furthest reach of the canal.
River and Canal office, Exeter City Council, Haven Road, Exeter. EX2 8DU
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
This small but wildlife rich meadow provides commanding views across the city.
About the reserve
Whitycombe Valley Park is one of six Exeter Valley Parks managed by Devon Wildlife Trust.
At just one hectare, this small site is worth a visit to see some pristine meadow and a seldom seen view of the city.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/whitycombe-valley-park
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
A surprise awaits you in the Redhills part of Exeter. Barley Valley Park allows you to explore 11 hectares of pretty rolling hills and tranquil walks in the setting of a local nature reserve.
About the reserve
Barley Valley Park is one of six Exeter Valley Parks managed by Devon Wildlife Trust.
This western ridge line of the city has splendid rural valleys and offers excellent views of the city.
Barley Valley Park has a patchwork of woods and meadows for you to explore. A network of footpaths and bridleways lead to and from the Valley Park allowing you to extend your visit and explore the farmland fringes of Exeter.
Directions
There are several entrances into Barley Valley Local Nature Reserve that can be found off Higher Barley Mount, at the junction of Bowhay Lane Bridleway and Barley Lane and at the end of Antonine Crescent.
Did you know, a German bomber crashed in the reserve during the bombing raid on Exeter in WW2?
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/barley-valley-park
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The Devon Redlands National Character Area (NCA) has a very strong, unified character. The underlying red sandstone and consequent red soil dominate the landscape through ploughed fields, cliffs and exposures, and are visually evident in the traditional stone and cob farmsteads, hamlets and villages that are scattered across the area. Not only does the soil visually characterise the area but its fertility also makes it the agricultural heart of Devon. Mixed agriculture has shaped this landscape since medieval times, an era that left a dense pattern of deep and narrow lanes imprinted in the landscape. The gently rolling hills that feature across the NCA support a network of hedgerows enclosing relatively small fields that are either grazed or under arable cultivation. Hedgerow trees and small copses often give a wooded appearance to the hills. The valleys in between are flat bottomed and open into extensive flood plains across the central part of the Redlands. Here, more ‘shrubby’ hedgerows or fences enclose larger arable or grazed fields.
http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/6150022?category=587130
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Wikipedia The estuary is a Special Protection Area and SSSI. It is also a Ramsar site.
The Exe Estuary is a site of international importance for wading birds, which feed on the estuary mudflats at low tide, and roost at high tide at the adjacent Dawlish Warren SSSI and Bowling Green Marsh. The RSPB has two nature reserves adjoining the estuary, at Bowling Green Marsh and Exminster Marshes.
Over 10,000 wildfowl and 20,000 waders winter on the estuary. These include dark-bellied brent goose (Branta bernicla), Eurasian wigeon (Anas penelope), ringed plover (Charadius hiaticula), black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa), and pied avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta).
The Exminster Marshes, a series of fields drained by dykes and ditches, carry several plants rare in Devon including parsley, water dropwort (Oenanthe lachenalii), flowering rush Butomus umbellatus and frogbit Hydrocharis morsus-ranae. Dragonflies are also supported, such as the ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) and hairy dragonfly (Brachytron pratense).
The marshes are bounded by the Exeter Canal. Both are fringed by beds of common reed Phragmites australis, providing important habitat for Old World warblers.
Burrowing invertebrates are found in the sandbanks and mudflats. These include lugworm (Arenicola marina), peppery furrow shell (Scrobicularia plana), tellins Macoma spp., common cockle (Cerastoderma edule), pod razor (Ensis siliqua), sea potato (Echinocardium cordatum), and masked crab (Corystes cassivelaunus). Beds of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) are food for Eurasian oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus). The estuary is the only British location for the polychaete worm Ophelia bicornia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exe_Estuary
Exe Estuary. 11/03/92; England; 2,346 ha; 50°39'N 003°27'W. Special Protection Area EC Directive; SSSI, Local Nature Reserve. The estuary includes shallow offshore waters, extensive mud and sand flats, saltmarsh, a complex of marshes and damp pasture, and an extensive dune system. The area is important for internationally important numbers of several species of wintering and passage waterbirds and functions as a refuge during severe weather. Ramsar site no. 542. Most recent RIS information: 1999.
https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/542
The Convention on Wetlands is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
The convention entered into force in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 5 May 1976.
The United Kingdom currently has 175 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites), with a surface area of 1,283,040 hectares.
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Westcountry Rivers Trust The headwaters of the Exe lie in the Exmoor National Park. From its source at Exehead, the river flows across the moorland and passes across the rural Exe valley landscape, through the heart of Exeter and finally reaches the sea at Exmouth.
Throughout its journey from source to sea, the River Exe forms an central part of the lives and identities of those who live along its banks. Every stretch of this iconic river offers beautiful scenery, rich wildlife and a space to be explored and admired by all those who make their way to this stunning corner of the world.
https://wrt.org.uk/project/river-exe/
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
Discover tranquillity with a gentle circular path through woodland, alongside a stream and an orchard. Climb Stoke Hill for wilder walks through wildflower meadows and tree-studded parkland, to enjoy the views across the city to the Exe Estuary.
About the reserve
Mincinglake Valley Park is one of six Exeter Valley Parks managed by Devon Wildlife Trust.
The park provides easy access for visitors by car. It is a wonderful location for manageable and pleasant stream side and wooded walks, meadows and parkland. Part of the Valley Park was created from a former waste tip, capped in the 1970s! It also caters for those who enjoy some hillier walks too, with long views towards the estuary.
Did you know, Mincinglake comes from the old English words for ‘Nun’s lake’ a reference to the ‘Greater Polsloe Pond’, a lake created when the St. Katherines Priory nuns dammed the stream in the 12th century?
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/mincinglake-valley-park
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
Paths and boardwalks allow you to get among the reed beds and ponds of this wetland reserve.
About the reserve
We probably could have come up with a better name for this often over-looked nature reserve! But the 'Old Sludge Beds' does at least hint at the history behind the place.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/old-sludge-beds
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