Beckingham Marshes

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Address
Nearest car park: The Willow Works, Shipyard Road Drain, Beckingham DN10 4PY
Grid ref
SK795900

Beckingham Marshes is a partnership project with the Environment Agency and a local grazier to create a thriving wet grassland and hay meadow reserve in the Trent Valley. We are bringing back breeding birds such as lapwing and redshank and providing homes for water voles and plentiful insects.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Open at all times.

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
Free
Children
Free
Car park cost

Free

Facilities

  • No visitor centre
  • Car park off-site
  • Toilets off-site
  • Accessible toilets off-site
  • No Refreshments
  • Picnic area
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails
  • Shop off-site

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

The nearest train stations are Gainsborough Lea Road and Gainsborough Central. A taxi from either station is then the best way to access the site.

By bus

Stagecoach bus service 97 stops at 'The Croft' in Beckingham, the closest stop to the reserve. Alight here and on foot, take the first right (Station Road). Follow Station Road to the Old Willow Works.

By road

At the roundabout at the junction of the A631 and A620, take the Station Road exit, signposted Beckingham and Trent Wharfage. Then take the first major right-hand turn (also Station Road) which becomes Old Trent Road. Parking is available at the Old Willow Works on the left-hand side.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Get directions from Google Maps
RSPB reserves on Google Earth

What will the weather be like?

12 degrees, Light rain

Downloads

Helping you find your way around. PDF, 60Kb

Beckingham Marshes trail guide

Contact Beckingham Marshes

What will you see?

Our star species

Seasonal highlights

In spring, the air is filled with birdsong as they compete to establish territories and attract a mate. Lapwings and redshanks perform their breeding displays, the first spring migrants return from their wintering grounds in Africa, and skylark song can be heard across the reserve.

In summer look out for young lapwings feeding on the muddy edges of the pools and wildfowl floating on the water with their broods of fluffy ducklings. Listen and look closely at the hedgerows to pick out a tree sparrow busily feeding its young and then look to the skies to watch meadow pipits performing their 'parachuting' display flight.

In autumn, you can find migrating waders such as greenshank, green sandpiper and black-tailed godwit. Duck numbers start to build up as winter approaches. Species include wigeon, teal, gadwall and shoveler.

Winter thrushes, redwings and fieldfares, are a real feature from October to March and can be present in flocks of a few hundred. If you’re lucky, you may see a barn owl or a short-eared owl hunting low over the meadows on a sunny winter’s afternoon.

About Beckingham Marshes

Habitat

The wet grazing marsh habitat we are trying to re-establish provides ideal conditions for a host of wetland wildlife – particularly breeding wading birds, such as lapwings and redshanks – but also water voles, dragonflies and damselflies, amphibians and a variety of aquatic plants. Our wet grassland features flooded fields in winter, with wet scrapes and muddy edges in spring and summer, perfect for the wealth of wildlife that uses them.

The reserves hedgerows provide a home for our thriving colony of tree sparrows, as well as food for winter thrushes, nesting sites for small birds and mammals and habitat for a variety of insects. A mix of native hedgerow species such as hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel create ideal habitat corridors along the boundaries of the site.

Conservation

Beckingham Marshes is a conservation project. We are working with the Environment Agency and a local grazier to re-establish the wet grazing marsh habitat lost after the Second World War.

From 2010 to 2015, the reserve completed a five-year wet grassland restoration project, combined with installation of trails, viewing points and signage. Generously funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project has been highly successful; setting up the long-term future of the reserve to support a variety of breeding wading birds, wildfowl, tree sparrows, water voles, brown hares, dragonflies, barn owls and aquatic plants. 

The engineering project started in 2010 with the creation of a series of new ditches and pools. These were complemented by the installation of three wind-powered water pumps in 2011 to enable the movement of water around the reserve. Our wet grassland is now managed by a programme of careful water level management, grass cutting and grazing cattle. Anti-predator fences, installed in 2015, have helped our breeding lapwings and redshanks to even greater success.

In 2016, we embarked on a project to convert three dry fields into hay meadows. These fields were sown with a mix of wild flowers, rich in pollen and nectar. This will develop into a thriving meadow, full of colour and buzzing with insects, providing food and habitat for small mammals and birds when mature. Light grazing in the spring, followed by an autumn hay cut and then further grazing will create ideal conditions for the wild flowers to develop.

Site information

Beckingham Marshes is helping to give nature a home along the River Trent floodplain. Although there is no visitor centre, The Old Willow Works across the road may be open. There is a visitor trail, leading to a raised viewing platform over one of the wet grassland fields, with information boards detailing interesting aspects of the site and its history. Along the trail, there are four "discovery domes" providing further information about the reserve.

Latest blog posts

read our blog

Activities and events

Leisure activities

We have a nature trail leading out to the viewing platform providing a pleasant walk through developing hay meadow, taking in four information "domes" detailing interesting aspects of the site's wildlife and history.

The viewing platform at the end of the trail provides raised views over one of the wet grassland fields, with opportunity to see our breeding waders and flocks of wintering wildfowl.

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