| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 | |
| Location | Cambridgeshire |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TL 293 716 [1] |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 4.7 hectares [1] |
| Notification | 1984 [1] |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Houghton Meadows is a 4.7-hectare (12-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) between Houghton and St Ives in Cambridgeshire. [1] [2] The SSSI covers three meadows south of Thicket Road; they are part of the 8-hectare (20-acre) Houghton Meadows nature reserve, which is owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, and which also includes Browns Meadow to the south. [3] [4]
Some of these fields are pasture and others are hay meadows, and they display ridges and furrows from medieval ploughing. They are a type of neutral grassland which is declining nationally. Flowers include cowslips and yellow-rattles, and there are fauna such as green woodpeckers and great crested newts. [3] [5]
There is access from the Ouse Valley Way, which runs along Thicket Road.
References
- ^ a b c d "Designated Sites View: Houghton Meadows". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ "Map of Houghton Meadows". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ a b "Houghton Meadows". Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ "History of Houghton Meadows" (PDF). Huntingdonshire Fauna and Flora Society. 2008. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
- ^ "Houghton Meadows citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2016.