A Civic Society for Romsey, Hampshire UK and surrounding villages

      Romsey Environmental Sites

Where are our Environmentally Valuable Sites?

For such a relatively small area, Romsey with Romsey Extra Parish (see map) has a remarkable variety of areas of landscape and wildlife value. It is this variety and richness that helps to make this such a good place to live, but also gives us a particular responsibility to help look after it.

Our area includes the nationally important Test Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), of which the old Barge Canal that runs north from ‘The Plaza’ is part, and of course the whole Test Valley is both a fabulous landscape and has many areas of wildlife interest in addition to the SSSI. We also have a large number of designated Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs), nonstatutory sites which are of critical importance to conserving the county’s wildlife, or which combine some wildlife interest with a high value to local communities.

Our SINCs include wetlands such a Fishlake Meadows just north of the town, grasslands such as those at Abbotswood, many ancient woodlands like Squabb Wood in the west of our area, and complexes of all of these habitats to the east of the Woodley part of the town. We also have Tadburn Meadows, designated as a Local Nature Reserve. On top of all this, there are many sites that have not been designated, but which as a whole support a great deal of our wildlife or contribute to our ‘sense of place’, and which individually are important to those who live nearby, such as flower-rich roadside verges.

To be able to take positive action to help conserve environmentally important sites, we need to know where they all are. The Environment Committee of the Society is therefore looking at how we get all the current information for Romsey and Romsey Extra together in a readily accessible form. We will not, of course, be duplicating any of the work done for Look at Romsey. But we need your help. It is likely that members of the Society know of sites in the Romsey and Romsey Extra areas (see map) that they value, but which have not been recorded by anyone. If so, we would like to hear from you.

What we are interested in are sites that can actually be mapped rather than, say, views, and which have some wildlife, landscape or locally attractive natural feature. If the site is private, we will have to leave it to you to get permission if you need to enter it. You do not need any great expertise to help – there is a simple form you can print from here or Romsey Library and the Heritage Centre will have copies for the next few weeks.
There is no problem if you want to leave it until the summer to return your form. The form explains how to complete and where to return it, but if you have problems, please contact Dr Kate Clark by e-mail for preference at kate.mclark@virgin.net, or otherwise by phoning 01794 342220.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Dr Robert Page, Chairman Environment Committee. January 2009

Read the details also in the latest News Sheet January 2009 No. 102, page 7

Survey map     Environment form