Overview
Located along the River Flit, the site has a mix of wet grassland, ponds, scrub, and regenerating woodland. Managed by the Greensand Trust, it features diverse habitats.
The Sandy Smith Nature Reserve lies on the floodplain and northern slopes of the Flit Valley between Clophill and Chicksands, covering an area of 93ha. It has been a nature reserve since 2006 when the land was bought by the Peter Smith Charitable Trust and given to the Greensand Trust, who manage the reserve with the help of their volunteers.
History of the Site
The land that now forms the reserve was once part of the farmland, woodland and parkland of the Chicksands Priory estate. When the Estate was dispersed in the 1930s, this area of land was sold off with Speedsdairy Farm. It was farmed until 2003, mostly arable but with cattle grazing on the wet meadow. The woodland and copses were used for game rearing. As with farmland in many places, hedges and in-field trees were removed during the 1960s and ’70s. After the reserve was established in 2006, new hedges were planted alongside the footpaths to create wide green lanes and smaller fields. The fields have now been grazed by sheep and/or cattle since 2009 and this is slowly creating a varied grassland, with more scrub on the western side of the reserve. The strip round the northern edge of the reserve is regenerating to woodland to create a woodland link between Chicksands Wood and Upper Alders. Ten years on and the reserve is still developing; every year new species are recorded.
Habitat
The River Flit flows through the southern end of the site; either side are wet marshy grassland, ponds, small areas of reeds, wet woodland and an area regenerating to woodland. To the north are grassland, scrub, young hedges and a small number of veteran oak trees.
June 2016
Access
Access by car is from the Clophill to Beadlow road, with parking on the grass verge. Several public footpaths provide a circular walk through the reserve.
From the Clophill to Beadlow road, turn off on a track at TL10463856, carry on past the metal gate, which is kept propped open. Please be aware you are on a private access track. Parking is available for several cars on the grass verge of the access track at TL109387. Three public footpaths pass through the reserve, with a permissive path linking two to make a circular walk. These are all shown on a map on the information board at the main entrance. The Clophill – Shefford bridleway passes the entrance to the reserve and there are cycle racks by the information board.
Birds
Red Kite, Kingfisher, Little Grebe, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Cuckoo, Stonechat, Great Grey Shrike.
Little Owl – Steve Blain
