Langford Lowfields

Address: RSPB Langford Lowfields nature reserve, Cottage Ln, Collingham, Newark NG23 7QL

Grid ref: SK821601

Langford Lowfields is a flagship partnership project involving the RSPB and Tarmac, showcasing wetland habitat creation on a large scale. A thriving reedbed sits at the heart of this expanding reserve, with wildlife highlights including bitterns, brown hares, bearded tits, marsh harriers, avocets, wintering wildfowl, starling mumurations and colourful wildflowers.

Plan your visit

Open 7 days a week, dawn till dusk.

Free entrance to RSPB members: Yes

Adults: Free

Children: Free

Car park suggested donation: Suggested minimum donation of £1 per car for non-members.

Facilities

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

Accessibility

Download full accessibility statement (PDF)

How to get here

By train

Collingham is the nearest railway station. From here, follow Station Road into the village. At the crossroad by the Royal Oak pub, turn left and follow the main road past the King’s Head pub, then turn right towards The Village Green. Bear left onto Church Street and carry straight onto Cottage Lane. Continue south for half a mile until you come to a sharp left-hand bend, where you will find the entrance.

By bus

The no. 67 bus service from Newark-on-Trent to Collingham will stop near Cottage Lane if requested.

By bike

National Cycle Route 64 runs along the eastern boundary and past the site entrance.

By road

At the Newark Showground roundabout, take the A1133 exit signposted towards Gainsborough and Collingham. After 2.5 miles, immediately after the level crossing, turn left into Cottage Lane. The gated entrance to the car park is 50m along the lane. Any drivers of vehicles higher than 2.2m must call ahead (01636 893611, Mon-Fri 9am-4pm) to request that the height barrier is manually opened on their arrival.

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Contact Langford Lowfields

RSPB Langford Lowfields nature reserve, Cottage Ln, Collingham, Newark NG23 7QL
langford.beckingham@rspb.org.uk
01636 893611
@RSPBLangford
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What will you see?

Our star species

Barn owl

When the barn owls have hungry young to feed, you could see them at any time of day hunting over the reedbed and grassland areas.

Bittern

Stand very quietly at dusk on a winter's day and if you're luck, see one fly across the reeds. During the Spring listen out for their loud booming call, first heard regularly at Langford during 2017

Cuckoo

From late April, look and listen out for them, as the adults arrive and start looking for mates.

Hobby

Elegant falcons which arrive at Langford in late April, leaving in September.

Bearded tit

These moustachioed beauties first bred at Langford in 2016, listen out for their pinging call and during the winter look out for small flocks bouncing across the reed tops.

Nature spectacles

There are excellent, all year-round wildlife spectacles. The changing landscape with major habitat creation is of huge interest. Winter months generate large waterfowl numbers, starling roosts, and occasional short-eared and barn owls. Summer months include 10 species of warbler, cuckoos, marsh harriers, hobbies and sand martins, as well as 29 species of butterflies.

Spring is the time for singing warblers, noisy cuckoos, elegant avocets, squealing water rails, nesting bearded tits and maybe even a booming bittern. The reserve sits next to the River Trent (one of Nature's migration super-highways) and acts as a stop-off point for a range of migrating birds that pass through during the spring. Wheatears and whinchats are seen annually, with the possibility of something rarer always on the cards.

Summer is the time for colourful wildflowers, fast-moving dragonflies, fluttering butterflies and birds relaxing and skulking around after a busy breeding season. The grasslands come alive with the noise of chirruping grasshoppers and buzzing bees and the contrasting colour of the big blue skies and vivid green reed results in spellbinding views across the site.

Autumn brings with it a variety of wading birds stopping to refuel on their southward journeys, with greenshanks, dunlins, ringed plovers and whimbrels being regular. These long-legged mud-lovers are joined by fast-moving hungry hobbies pursuing dragonflies such as common darter, ruddy darter and migrant hawker over the reedbeds. Hares can be seen running through the dew-soaked grass and barn owls look for tasty voles to eat as they silently glide through the misty evening air.

Winter is the time for flocks of wildfowl braving the icy mornings; goldeneyes, wigeons and the occasional smew. Starling murmurations can be seen, with up to 40,000 birds sky-dancing against the backdrop of brilliant winter sunsets.

About Langford Lowfields

Habitat

The habitats at Langford Lowfields are developing rapidly, with 35 hectares of establishing reedbed, wildflower-rich meadows, areas of dense thorny scrub and a three hectare mature woodland. The reserve will expand in size greatly over the next few decades, with a greater range of habitats including wet woodland and potentially even an area of floodplain wet grassland and back waters off the River Trent being added to the existing mosaic. The reeded areas will continue to develop attracting more and more wildlife.

The underwater habitats too will continue to mature, supporting an ever increasing and more diverse fish population, with eels being one of the key species we hope will benefit and thrive at Langford.

The woodland is being managed to increase the number of native oak trees and also for the benefit of elm-loving white letter hairstreak butterflies. Areas of scrub are coppiced on an annual basis to ensure a diversity of age structures, to benefit as great a range of insect and birdlife as possible and the wild-flower rich meadow area is cut annual for hay to help boost the range and number of flower species it supports.

Conservation

Langford Lowfields is a partnership project between Tarmac and the RSPB involving restoration of a sand and gravel quarry on the banks of the River Trent. This is habitat creation on a huge scale. The reserve already has 35ha of developing reedbed, as well as wildflower-rich meadows, areas of scrub and a small mature woodland. Work being carried out during 2017 will add a further 35ha of reedbed habitat to the site. With the quarry set to expand over the next few decades, the reserve too will only get bigger.

Land drainage and the threat of coastal inundation along the east coast, has meant not only a huge decline in the amount of reedbed in the UK, but has also highlighted the importance of establishing large, functioning inland reedbeds that provide a home for a wealth of special wildlife.

Restoration of the quarried areas involves soil that has been 'stripped' to expose the sand and gravel deposits beneath, being placed back into the quarried areas and then landscaped to create islands and deep water-filled channels. The landscaping is carefully designed to ensure the final habitats meet the specific requirements of the key species we aim to attract. It is followed up by mechanized planting of reed turfs and then hand planting of thousands of reed seedlings, with 12,000 planted in 2016.

Partners

Working in Partnership with Tarmac.

Site information

Langford Lowfields perfectly illustrates the value and success of conservation and business working closely together. Including areas waiting to be restored, the reserve currently covers 175ha and could easily double or triple in size over the next few decades. Langford Lowfields provides an incredible haven for nature and complements conservation projects being delivered across the wider area by farmers, landowners, statutory agencies, Wildlife Trusts and businesses.

Once restoration is complete, the largest reedbed in the East Midlands will sit at the heart of the Langford Lowfields wetland complex, attracting an amazing array of wildlife. Bitterns, marsh harriers, and bearded tits have already all bred on the site, with numbers expected to increase over the next few years.

During the summer the air hums with dragonflies, bees and other insects whilst the wildflower-rich grassland round the reedbed areas continues to increase in botanical diversity. The scrubby areas play host to large numbers of nesting birds during the breeding season and with the installation of a new connection to the river during 2017, critically endangered eels will be able to enter the site from the River Trent, hopefully bringing with them increased sightings of the elusive but present otters.

Langford Lowfields nature reserve is kindly supported by funds from Tarmac, Biffa Award, SITA Trust, Trent Vale Landscape Partnership, Barker Langham, Natural England as well as other trusts, RSPB local groups and supporters.

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