Honeybrook Farm
Honeybrook Farm (grid reference ST841730) is a working farm three miles (4.8 km) south of Castle Combe in Wiltshire, England, between the villages of Biddestone and Slaughterford.[1] The farm has a total area of sixty-five hectares (160 acres), of which forty-two point four one hectares (104.8 acres) are designated as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.[2]
Land
Honeybrook Farm is situated within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and part of its area straddles the stream known as the By Brook. The SSSI was designated due to the national importance of the herb-rich meadows and high quality calcareous grassland. The farmers have a small herd of Herefords, some sheep and grow a small amount of Spring barley.[1]
Honeybrook Farm is one of only a few British lowland farms which have retained a low-intensity management where agricultural chemicals have never been utilised. The farm is underlain by the oolitic limestone of the Wiltshire Cotswolds, and there are two parts a dry combe to the east and part of the flood plain of the By Brook to the west. Rocks of the Midford Sands of the Bridport Formation emerge at the base of the limestone where it meets the floodplain.[2]
Flora
The grasses and herb which grow in the farm's hay meadows are indicative of the long period that the land has been managed non intensively. The untreated sward has a wide variety and abundance of typical herbs of such meadows such as black knapweed (Centaurea nigra), yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) and bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). The high lime content of the soil in the hay meadows is demonstrated by presence of plants such as the frequent salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor), upright brome (Bromus erectus), hoary plantain (Plantago media) and rough hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus). Where there are wet field edges species which favour damper conditions are found including common meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum), a localised species in North Wiltshire. Where the meadows are borders by ditches these support a rich wetland vegetation while the transition between the meadows and the nearby ancient woodland supports a rich flora which is now rare in lowland Britain.[2]
Archaeology
Artifacts from Roman Britain have been found near the farm.[3]
References
- ^ a b "Two survivors from a simpler farming age". Farmers Weekly. 30 June 2000. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
- ^ a b c "Honeybrook Farm" (PDF). English Nature. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
- ^ "Honeybrook Farm, Wiltshire". Archi UK. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
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- Acres Farm Meadow
- River Avon System
- Baverstock Juniper Bank
- Bencroft Hill Meadows
- Bentley Wood
- Bincknoll Dip Woods
- Blackmoor Copse
- Botley Down
- Bowerchalke Downs
- Box Mine
- Bracknell Croft
- Bradley Woods
- Bratton Downs
- Brickworth Down and Dean Hill
- Brimsdown Hill
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- Burcombe Down
- Burderop Wood
- Calstone and Cherhill Downs
- Camp Down
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- Clattinger Farm
- Clearbury Down
- Cley Hill
- Cloatley Manor Farm Meadows
- Clout's Wood
- Coate Water
- Cockey Down
- Colerne Park and Monk's Wood
- The Coombes, Hinton Parva
- Cotswold Water Park
- Cranborne Chase
- Dank's Down and Truckle Hill
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- East Harnham Meadows
- Ebsbury Down
- Emmett Hill Meadows
- Figsbury Ring
- Fonthill Grottoes
- Fyfield Down
- Gallows Hill
- Goldborough Farm Meadows
- Great Cheverell Hill
- Great Yews
- Gutch Common
- Ham Hill
- Hang Wood
- Harries Ground, Rodbourne
- Haydon Meadow
- Heath Hill Farm
- Homington and Coombe Bissett Downs
- Honeybrook Farm
- Inwood, Warleigh
- Jones's Mill
- River Kennet
- Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain
- King's Play Hill
- Knapp and Barnett's Downs
- Knighton Downs and Wood
- Landford Bog
- Landford Heath
- Langley Wood and Homan's Copse
- Little Grubbins Meadow
- Long Knoll
- Loosehanger Copse and Meadows
- Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows
- Lower Woodford Water Meadows
- Midford Valley Woods
- Morgan's Hill
- The New Forest
- North Meadow, Cricklade
- Odstock Down
- Out Woods
- Parsonage Down
- Pewsey Downs
- Picket and Clanger Wood
- Piggledene
- Pike Corner
- Pincombe Down
- Porton Down
- Porton Meadows
- Prescombe Down
- Rack Hill
- Ravensroost Wood
- Restrop Farm and Brockhurst Wood
- Rotherley Downs
- Roundway Down and Covert
- Salisbury Plain
- Savernake Forest
- Scratchbury & Cotley Hills
- Silbury Hill
- Spye Park
- Starveall and Stony Down
- Steeple Langford Down
- Stockton Wood and Down
- Stoke Common Meadows
- Stratford Toney Down
- Sutton Lane Meadows
- Throope Down
- River Till
- Tytherington Down
- Upper Waterhay Meadow
- Upton Cow Down
- West Yatton Down
- Whiteparish Common
- Whitesheet Hill
- Win Green Down
- Winklebury Hill
- Winsley Mines
- Wylye and Church Dean Downs
- Yarnbury Castle
- Neighbouring areas
- Avon
- Berkshire
- Dorset
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Oxfordshire
- Somerset
51°27′25″N 2°13′41″W / 51.457°N 2.228°W / 51.457; -2.228