SITE 310 NUNCKLEY HILL SPINNEY

The spinney was cut in two by the construction of The Mineral Line, Site 154 that ran from the Mountsorrel Granite Quarry to the Swithland Sidings on the Great Central Line. This old line is currently being 'restored' by the removal of good trees to re-instate the line for historical reasons. My opinion is that this so-called restoration is vandalism of an extremely good, undisturbed wildlife site to aid the building of a large vehicle restoration shed at the Swithland end for which planning permission was turned down.

30th July 2008

This visit was during the summer when undergrowth was at its peak and the spinney was rather impenetrable due to brambles and blackthorn. For this reason we had to give up trying to survey the whole of the spinney.

In the front part, accessed from the Mineral Line Bridge, there are the remains of an old granite building, which abuts the road boundary. It was too overgrown to get access but it did not show on our maps.

There is a mixture of trees, none of which were Ancient, but the whole area is unmanaged and overgrown. On the road boundary there is a good sized Ash that has had more room to grow but the Oaks are struggling for room and light. Blackthorn was everywhere, with hawthorn, willow and silver birch and what looked like a plantation in the form of a boundary belt between the properties on Kinchley Lane and the spinney.

There is no access to the disused quarry at the moment due to aggressive vegetation. The spinney encloses this quarry but it belongs to the Lanesborough Estate.

There is no access from Kinchley House where the owners live as this has been covered up to stop unauthorised access.

The 'south' side of the spinney is more accessible due to the workers on the Mineral Line restoration having cut a path through for access.

There looks to be the remains of a granite wall within this area with what looks like a pit at the corner of this by the Mineral Line.

This side of the spinney has bigger and better trees as they have more space to develop.

A winter visit would reveal more.

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