Barrington Hill Meadows

Barrington Hill Meadows

Site of Special Scientific Interest
Location within Somerset
Location	Somerset
Grid reference	ST300170
Coordinates	50.94817°N 2.99783°W / 50.94817; -2.99783
Interest	Biological
Area	16.1 hectares (0.161 km^2; 0.062 sq mi)
Notification	1987 (1987)
Natural England website

Barrington Hill Meadows (grid reference ST300170) is a 16.1 hectare (39.5 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset, England, notified in 1987.

Barrington Hill Meadows, 2 km west of the A358, midway between the villages of Windmill Hill and Bickenhall, is an English Nature national nature reserve.^[1]

This site comprises four meadows surrounded by well established hedges on gently sloping clay-rich soils. It is an outstanding example of a traditionally managed unimproved neutral grassland of a type now rare in Britain. Additional interest lies in the occurrence of an extremely rare grass species. The meadows belong to a type characterised by the widespread occurrence of Sweet Vernal Grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), Crested Dog's-tail (Cynosurus cristatus), Cowslip (Primula veris) and Green-winged Orchid (Orchis morio). A total of 74 different species have so far been recorded. This site is one of only 3 localities in Britain in which the grass Gaudinia fragilis is a prominent feature of the sward.^[2]

References

1. "Barrington Hill NNR". English Nature. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
2. "Barrington Hill Meadows" (PDF). English Nature. Retrieved 12 August 2006.