Park of the week

165. Woodridge Nature Reserve 

This a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation on the edge of Woodside Park, London, owned and managed by the London Borough of Barnet. The space was originally farmed as pasture, and the nature reserve it became was designed as a nature trail for local primary schools. I found it on a map, and was surprised it was there. It’s set back from the road, so I’d never noticed it before, when driving around the area. A hidden gem, or at least one I’d never heard of. In fact, there are large areas of green space and farmland in Barnet, as I’ve discovered.

The reserve is set in the Folly Brook Valley, a larger wildlife habitat of  woods and meadowsstretchinh between Woodside Park and Totteridge, open to the public as a green space. The reserve includes the Folly Brook (a shallow stream at this point), a tributary of Dollis Brook, which flows into the River Brent and eventually empties out into the River Thames.

There's young oak woodland and rough grassland, in which wild flowers grow, and is a home to for wildlife such as woodland birds, insects and amphibians. Tall hedgerows on both sides of the path create a sense of seclusion. I saw a deer in one hedgerow, but it ran away before I had the chance to photograph it.  It was about the size of a dog, so perhaps it was a little muntjac. The nature trails follow unpaved paths, some taking you to  open fields with wildflower meadows.

It seems very popular with dog walkers, in fact we were the only people who didn’t have a dog, when we visited. Access is by a gate at the end of a path between numbers 65 and 67 Michleham Down.

Judith Field

Woodridge Nature Reserve, Michleham Down, London, N12 7JL