Burlish Meadows Conservation Area
Nearest to
Stourport-on-Severn
Parking
Free parking is available all year round.
Opening times
Every day of the year.
Location
Located North of Stourport-on-Severn and South West of Kidderminster.
Main visitor car park and multiple pedestrian access gates located off the Kingsway, Stourport-on-Severn.
Pedestrian access only from A451 Minster Road and Zortech Avenue, Kidderminster
See on Google maps
Map reference
SO 81108 73164
What3Words
look.appeal.rings (Visitor car park entrance)
About
Burlish Meadows is approximately 40 hectares in size.
The site links to Burlish Top Local Nature Reserve, Rifle Range Site of Special Scientific Interest and The Devil's Spittleful and Blackstone Farm Fields
The former golf course came under our management in 2018. Over the last few years we have developed the site into an important meadow conservation area. We have cleared extensive flytipping and rubbish from the site; planted native trees; installed vital fencing and gates; created surfaced pathways and installed new ponds.
The Burlish Meadows story so far
2018 WFDC Countryside service took on the management of two areas of Burlish meadows from its historic land use as a golf course amenity.
2019 - through funding we installed fencing on the meadow adjacent to Burlish top for conservation grazing.
2020 – We gained funding through the natural networks grant. We installed two new wildlife ponds and installed a perimeter fence to graze this landscape.
Late 2020 – We gained the a 3rd area of Burlish meadow formerly on old land fill site. We had major operations of clearing out fly tipped waste, litter picking the land with our volunteers, profiling the pond to improve it for aquatic wildlife, and making the site safe for visitors to use.
2021 – In April 2021 we opened our new visitor car park for the old land fill meadow, we also planted trees in this area to enhance the landscape for people and wildlife.
2023 – We planted a further 3,000 trees at Burlish Meadows creating a connecting woodland corridor near to existing planted areas.
2024 - We have been installing new visitor access gates and continuing to improve the Burlish landscape for our visitors to enjoy.
You may have caught Paul Allen our Countryside and Technical Services Manager being interviewed on BBC Midlands Today about the fantastic project at Burlish Meadows. Nature benefitting from Worcestershire golf course transformation - BBC News
Working with Worcestershire Wildlife Trust and their Natural Networks project team our project aims to connect habitats and increase the abundance of wildlife in Worcestershire. Read more about Natural Networks and see the early progression of the project over on Burlish Golf Course - A Natural Networks Case Study | Worcestershire Wildlife Trust (worcswildlifetrust.co.uk)
Creating Habitat – Dead Hedges
The Countryside ranger service have been creating dead hedge habitat around the wildlife pond located on the old landfill meadow at Burlish meadow wildlife site. This will provide a haven for wildlife to shelter and live. The dead hedge will also reduce disturbance from dogs from eroding the banks and trampling the pond vegetation.
Native marginal pondside plants have been planted by our volunteers to provide a food source for our pollinators (insects) and areas to lay eggs.
What is a dead hedge?
In nature branches and other parts of trees teem with life both alive and when dead. To create a dead hedge structure the volunteers have installed rows of hazel stakes along the edge of the area being protected. In-between the stakes the volunteers have filled woody cuttings left over from reserve maintenance to create an upright dead hedge weaving hazel between the stakes to bind it all together.
Benefits of this habitat
Dead hedging is just as beneficial as any living flowering plants and trees we find around meadows, gardens, and other open spaces.
The next step
We will be continually adding additional natural materials into this structure over time including living plants such as honey suckles & wild roses which will provide natural colours and food sources for pollinators. Eventually this denser hedge will provide a home for birds to nest and other creatures such as mammals.
Stages of site development
We held a series of public consultation meetings at the beginning of December to discuss plans for the former golf course at Burlish Park.
Click on map image to view larger map showing land management around the former Wyre Forest Golf Course.
Working with our young rangers we have planted in excess of 500 new trees on our newly acquired land. The trees are a mixture of young native species and will form a new green border around part of the land.
The initial stages of works to lay out the old Wyre forest golf club for management as a meadow have now begun with fencing contractors arriving on site.
Grazing will be essential to the sites future as a meadow. The cattle’s presence at certain times of year will knock back the dense grasses, breaking up the surface allowing wild flowers to colonise and spread. In places where the sward is already disturbed, knapweed, Hawkweeds, dandelions and speedwell to name a few are appearing, providing nectar to a wide variety of bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.
The entire site is still fully open to the public and can be accessed via kissing gates, the locations of these have been chosen by speaking with users on site and also looking at the desire lines already in place. The layout does incorporate a surfaced track way (red dashed line), which will lead from Burlish Top car park down the length of the golf course without users having to interact with the cattle or open gates. There is also a view point located at the top of this compartment which will be inaccessible to cattle.
Click on map to enlarge.
Stage two - update 2020
Stage two of the transformation of ‘golf course’ to nature reserve is well underway. Winter/spring 2019/2020 saw the successful introduction of cattle grazing. This was very well received by the local community. The cattle are currently grazing the heaths and marshes of the district but will return in the winter. Many walkers have said how much they miss the cattle, if you are interested in becoming a volunteer ‘looker’, please get in touch.
A total of two ponds were installed during this period. Digging was delayed due to the extremely wet winter. Once the ponds were built along came coronavirus, and also one of the driest periods on record. It’s taken a while to get the ponds wet, but we will hopefully see them going from strength to strength. We have been asked a few times about the possibility of adding pond weed and fish. Please do not put fish or plants of any type into these ponds. The site already has a good amphibian population which will benefit from a fishless pool, as will the dragonflies and damselflies that will begin to colonise. We will add pond plants from our other sites and will choose species that will not take over.
A section of surfaced pathway has been built connecting the Kidderminster side of the golf course to Burlish Top. This will be further extended to connect into Stage 3. Over the coming few months we will be on site adding a native meadow seed mix to some of the scraped areas to help the meadow along.
When we began this project we were unaware that there would be a stage 3, but last year we found out that we would be taking over management of another piece of the old golf course that had most recently been used as a landfill site. Initial works involved a huge cleanup operation to remove many skips worth of flytipped materials and exposed concrete. The existing pool had been left with a hazardous drop along one edge and was littered with fridges and sofas. The footpath running through the site had been closed. This is now open.
The future of this site will involve the introduction of grazing to manage the open areas, removal of the hundreds of goldfish from the pool, improvements of the pathway network linking it to the rest of the golf course. We are currently working on a project with the Woodland Trust to also plant 18,000 trees.
It has been fascinating watching this area develop and also seeing the wildlife records rolling in. Skylarks did very well this year and it was great to see the resident Kestrels successfully raising their young. Sand martins were a pleasant surprise making their nests among a pile of sand left behind as part of the Severn Trent Works. Some unusual invertebrates have also been recorded such as the scarce Weld bee and Green Tiger Beetle.
Click on map to enlarge.