About this Blog

Charlton Down Nature Area is owned by Charminster Parish Council in Dorset. It is located in the small village of Charlton Down which was built in and around a former Victorian hospital complex. The Nature Area, occupying a space little bigger than a football pitch, was set up in 2008 as a haven for wildlife and a place for people to enjoy and learn about Nature. It sits on a piece of agricultural land formerly called Clover Ground which has at various times been used as grazing and for growing potatoes.

Grassy paths wind around a mostly open site with new young trees planted in clumps near the margins. The area benefits from well-established mature trees that lie along a former hedgerow, inhabit a small adjacent woody copse, and line the nearby road. The trees create a frame to four areas of lower growing vegetation which are being developed into different types of habitat such as a blackthorn scrub thicket that serves as a refuge for small birds, and a seeded wildflower area which is particularly attractive to insects. The centrepiece of this local nature area is a new pond that replaces the original one that had fallen into disrepair.

With this new Blog as a digital source of information, you will be able in due course to view layout maps of the Charlton Down Nature Area, and see photographs, lists and descriptions of all the plants and animals recorded there. It will illustrate the way the area changes through the seasons, and provide Nature Trail Guides that show what you are most likely to see each month of the year. Details will be posted about forthcoming events and activities; and it will give regular updates of new wildlife sightings and other interesting features of the reserve.

We hope that this Blog about our Nature Area will help visitors not only to have a greater understanding of the wildlife right on their doorstep, but also to help them engage with the urgent need to increase the biodiversity in our neighbourhood.