Getting to Noakes Grove
There is a small car park at the Redgates Lane entrance..
Buses 320 & 321 run between Audley End - Saffron Walden - Haverhill. Get off at the Sewards End village hall and walk along Redgates Lane - the Noakes Grove entrance is on the left about 1.5 km from the village..
This map shows the local footpaths: number 23 is a nice walk from the Ashdon Rd in Saffron Walden and links with a permissive path into Noakes Grove. The red shading on roads mark the special wildflower verges.
Click here to download a 2-page printer-friendly guide to Noakes Grove - to carry with you when you visit.
Noakes Grove - aerial photo showing the different habitats.
There are three ponds - all created by Walden Countryside. The biggest is where the scrub meets the wood and the smelliest is beside one of the paths through the scrub. Both are unlined and dry up in periods of hot dry weather. The third pond, near the barns, is lined and kept full by rain from the barn roof.
Noakes Grove is the first reserve we acquired first and the only one we own outright.
It was part of Sewards End Farm which was farmed by the three Reeve Brothers and auctioned after their death. Walden Countryside became the owners of Noakes Grove in 2016 having managed it since 2009.
It has four main habitat types three of which appear on a 1758 map in exactly the positions they are now. The then woodland area gives its name to the whole reserve and has lasted 600 years since a Mr Nokes was given permission to create a small-holding by clearing a virgate of forest belonging to the monks at what is now Audley End.
The wood has some very big oak trees and a good showing of bluebells in the Spring.
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The ancient hedgerows have a great variety of shrubs as is normal for very old hedges.
The pasture land has been used over the years for a variety of agricultural uses but is now grazed by our small flock of Wiltshire Horn sheep. The sheep are moved to a new quarter of the pasture every few weeks and the parts that have not been grazed for some time have a wonderful range of wildflowers. The pyramidal orchids are especially abundant. |
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The scrub area only developed when the Reeve brothers abandoned grazing the area sometime around 1970. It is the habitat of a large population of Wild Liquorice - a very rare and local plant in East Anglia. |
Click here to learn something of the long history of Noakes Grove - mainly from old maps.
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