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 cost: Up to 2 hours £1; More than 2 hours £2

Other discounts: RSPB members and Blue Badge holders park for free.

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

On leaving the station, head west into the village along Station Road. At the end of Station Road, continue straight across at the traffic lights into Bell Lane then turn left to come down Church Street and Cottage Lane. You will see a track as you reach a bend to the left (this is signposted RSPB). Take that track and you will find the RSPB car park. Go past the car park - the way to the reserve is straight ahead through the gate and up through the wood. The reserve entrance is approximately 800m. The total walking time is approx. 50 minutes.

By bus

The Collingham service bus is the 367 and it is able to drop off just past the junction of the A1133 and Cottage Lane – there is a pull off where large lorries wait. There is a similar pull in on the opposite side of the road. Passengers can request to be dropped off here and be picked up on the opposite side of the road but if being picked up MUST make themselves known clearly to the driver by sticking their arm out in good time for him/her to stop.

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. If your vehicle exceeds 2.2m in height, you will need to call the office, ideally in advance, on 01636 893611 (Monday to Friday 9am-4pm) prior to your visit to arrange for the height barrier to be opened.

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.

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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

Langford hosts excellent and ever-changing wildlife spectacles throughout the year. The evolving landscapes associated with major habitat creation are of huge interest for people and wildlife. Winter months are associated with large flocks of waterfowl, big starling roosts, barn owls, snipe, lapwing and peregrines. Summer month highlights include 10 species of warblers, cuckoos, marsh harriers, hobbies, sand martins and a host of dragonflies and 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 constantly developing as the site continues to establish. Large areas of reedbed are complemented by wildflower-rich meadows, areas of dense thorny scrub and a small block of mature woodland. Parts of the site have only just been restored and provide large areas of bare mud surrounded by deep water, in time these will develop into reedbed, but this process will take a number of years. The reserve will expand in size over the next few decades, with more reedbed, scrapes, wet woodland and potentially an area of floodplain wet grassland and a braided backwater channel connected to the River Trent, being added to the existing mosaic.

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 that will benefit and thrive at Langford.

The woodland is being managed to increase the number of native oak trees, for the benefit of elm-loving, white-letter hairstreak butterflies and to increase the floral diversity. Areas of scrub are coppiced on an annual basis to ensure a diversity of age structures, benefitting as great a range of insect and birdlife as possible.

The wild-flower rich meadow area is cut annually for hay to help boost the range and number of flower species and in turn the variety of insects 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 carried out during 2017 and 2018 added a further 35ha of wetland habitat to the site. In time this will succeed to reedbed, but for the next few years will provide excellent habitat for wading birds. 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 the wealth of special wildlife found living within this threatened habitat.

Restoration of the quarried areas at Langford 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 separated by deep water channels. It is on these undulating, wiggly-edged islands that the reed will establish. Reed establishment is kick-started by mechanized planting of reed turfs and followed up with hand planting of thousands of reed seedlings, with 10000 planted each year. The landscaping plans are carefully designed to ensure the final habitats meet the specific requirements of the key species we aim to attract.

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 Trent Valley 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. Reedbed specialists including marsh harriers and bearded tits have already bred on the site, with numbers expected to increase over the next few years. Bitterns are heard booming annually during the spring. Wading birds including avocets and little-ringed plovers love the newly restored parts of the reserve and the birdlife is complemented by brown hares, otters, roe deer, purple hairstreak butterflies and hairy dragonflies.

During the summer the air hums with damselflies, 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 completion of the water control structure linking us to the River Trent during 2017, critically endangered eels can now enter and exit the reserve.

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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