The Woodland

The woodland is designated as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and is dominated by sycamore with oak, elder, ash and elm. The ground flora is composed mainly of bramble. Badgers use this area although the main setts are in the woodland to the east of the north/south path which has been retained by the developer. The woodland supports a wide variety of wildlife as documented in the Morley Park Wildlife Guide by Tony Drakeford, FRES. 

The upper meadow

This area was formerly used as a football field and then benefited from a period of benign neglect with infrequent mowing which resulted in the creation of a meadow rich in wildlife. The works required to be done to the meadow before transferring the park to the Council included harrowing and over-seeding with meadow mix to improve it. The outcome is a beautiful summer flowering meadow with all the plants mentioned in the Wildlife Guide and more. The best time to enjoy the meadow at its flowering best is mid May through to mid July. The meadow will be cut once a year, probably in September. 

The pond on the meadow is an ‘attenuation’ pond which is a part of the drainage scheme for the Wimbledon Hill Park development. The rain water from the development is channelled into the public sewer in Cottenham Park Road via the pond, which has a mechanism which can control the flow of water to the sewer.  The pond will only fill above the banks of the flow channel when it is controlled during extremely heavy rainfall. There is a shallow seasonal pondlet next to the flow channel.