9
Court Hill,
Church Lane,
Little Leighs,
Chelmsford,
Essex,
CM3 1PC
Chelmsford (0245) 361475
DAVID SCOTT
THE LATEST ESSEX NATURE RESERVE - THE
RODING VALLEY MEADOWS AT LOUGHTON
Ancient flood meadows, those lush, florist-
ically-rich grasslands subjected to winter
flooding, are one of the most threatened
habitats in Britain. In 1985 the Nature
Conservancy Council estimated we had lost
some 95% of flower-rich meadows from the
British landscape. It is very fitting
that the latest Essex Naturalists' Trust
reserve should be a complex of flood meadows,
hay meadows and marsh, bounded by hedgerows
bordering the River Roding at Loughton in
the south-west of the county. 
The reasons why such meadows have become so
scarce are many and varied. Perhaps the
most significant factor has been modern
intensive agricultural practices, coupled
with E.E.C. grants and subsidies which
favour the production of cereals rather
than maintaining the existing, but much less
profitable, meadow and pasture land.
Sometimes an old meadow may be ploughed
and seeded with a mixture of fewer but higher-
yielding plant species. These practices