Lea Meadows is a nature reserve east of
Markfield
Markfield is a large village in both the National Forest and Charnwood Forest and in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. The settlement dates back to at least the time of the Norman conquest and is mentioned in th ...
in
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
. It is owned and managed by the
Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.
It is part of the
Ulverscroft Valley
Ulverscroft Valley is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Markfield in Leicestershire. The site is in five separate blocks, and two areas are nature reserves managed by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust (L ...
, which is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
,
and part of it is a
scheduled monument.
Over 240 species of plants have been recorded on these unimproved marshy meadows, and there is a stream which has
white-clawed crayfish
''Austropotamobius pallipes'' is an endangered European freshwater crayfish, and the only crayfish native to the British Isles. Its common names include white-clawed crayfish and Atlantic stream crayfish.
Distribution
It is found from the easter ...
and
brook lampreys, both of which are legally protected. Part of the site is surrounded by a medieval moat.
[
There is access from Ulverscroft Lane.
]
References
{{Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust
Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust