Millhoppers – Our First Reserve
Posted by admin - 07/01/09 at 02:01:30 pmThis site of approx 3 acres was acquired by the efforts of few individuals from the adjacent village of Long Marston, a grant from Dacorum Borough Council and Butterfly Conservation. It was finally secured by our organization and dedicated to Gordon Beningfield in1998 who sadly had died just before the opening.
The strange name possibly originates from a stream-crossing to an old mill long since untraceable. Others contend that it derives from mill-stones laid to enable people to cross the stream. The entire area then was much wetter.
Millhoppers is a rare example of a remnant of ancient countryside encircled by arable land. It contains a large section of unimproved grassland. Some of the hedges are thought to date back to Tudor times. It possesses a pond fed by a stream and a public footpath provides access on one side
The site has a large stand of blackthorn scrub which provides good cover for birds and mammals. There are 16 black poplar trees in the hedgerow. This a nationally rare tree but not uncommon locally.
As the site has not been farmed within living memory there is potential for a rich diversity of plantlife to support butterflies. Thus our main efforts have been directed to cutting and raking off grass. In addition the vigorous black thorn scrub and large banks of nettles have to be contained.
So far nectar plants are emerging and the butterfly species count, although not containing rarities, stand at 21.
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Powered by WordPress with GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS.
By way of introduction, my family have lived in the area for over 500 years and in the last 40 years I have carried out extensive research on the locality as well as on my own family tree. I would like to provide the following information about the Millhoppers which I have gleaned from old records. The mill of Gubblecote (traditionally pronounced ‘Gubblegutt’) stood on this site at the junction of the manors of Gubblecote, Puttenham and Wilstone and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The mill was driven by water fed from three hoppers (or reservoirs) that were supplied by the brook, one of which was subsequently filled in and is now part of College Farm’s land – the two remaining ones were also partially filled in and became what is now the butterfly sanctuary. This is the true derivation of the name ‘Millhoppers’. Regards, Ivor Gregory.
Comment by I. P. Gregory — December 18, 2010 #