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Mill Hill Old Railway Nature Reserve is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation, Grade II, in 
The reserve follows the route of the Highgate to
The Northern Heights, Mill Hill East to Edgware
Mill Hill
Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18, ...
in the London Borough of Barnet.
The reserve follows the route of the Highgate to Edgware
Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...
line, closed in 1964, of the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway
The Edgware, Highgate and London Railway was a railway in North London. The railway was a precursor of parts of London Underground's Northern line and was, in the 1930s the core of an ambitious expansion plan for that line which was thwarted by ...
, between Deans Lane and Bunns Lane.
Most of it, between Deans Lane and a short footpath from The Meads, is a closed site owned by the London Borough of Barnet and formerly managed by the London Wildlife Trust, although as of April 2021 it is no longer listed on their website. It is open from 10am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The remaining stretch to Bunns Lane borders Lyndhurst Park. This is not managed and is very overgrown.
The reserve is wooded, with some areas of rough pasture and herbs, and is an important habitat for slowworms. The grassland has a variety of wild flowers including burnet saxifrage
''Pimpinella saxifraga'', known as burnet-saxifrage, solidstem burnet saxifrage, lesser burnet is a plant species in the family Apiaceae, a native of the British Isles and temperate Europe and Western Asia. It is neither a burnet, which its l ...
and the rare great burnet.
The mosaic of gardens backing onto the reserve provides a good habitat for suburban birds, including sparrowhawk, green and great spotted woodpeckers, long-tailed tit, chiffchaff and blackcap.
Butterflies, moths and other invertebrates such as orange-tip, small copper and hoverflies are common.
See also
*Nature reserves in Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet, on the northern outskirts of London, is mainly residential, but it has large areas of green space and farmland. The spread of suburban development into the countryside was halted by the designation of a statutory Gr ...
References
External links
The Northern Heights, Mill Hill East to Edgware
Further reading
* {{London Wildlife Trust Nature reserves in the London Borough of Barnet London Wildlife Trust Mill Hill