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Watercress Wildlife Site
Watercress Wildlife Site is a Local Nature Reserve in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It is owned by St Albans City Council and managed by the Watercress Wildlife Association, a registered charity. The boundaries of the site are the Alban Way, the River Ver and the houses of Riverside Road. Until 1972 the site was one of the many commercial watercress beds in the area. It was then used partly as allotments, with fly tipping in some areas. In 1991 the council leased the site to the Watercress Wildlife Association, which cleared the site to become a nature reserve and gradually took over the allotments. The site has a wide variety of wildlife, including water rails, kingfishers, little grebes and muntjac deer. Facilities There is access from the junction of Riverside Road and Cornwall Road. Facilities include a hide, seating area and information board. See also The Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust has a reserve at Lemsford Springs, Lemsford, which is also a former watercress ...
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River Ver In Watercress Wildlife Site
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as Stream#Creek, creek, Stream#Brook, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to Geographical feature, geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "Burn (landform), burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague. Rivers are part of the water cycle. Water generally collects in a river from Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation through a ...
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St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. Name St Albans takes its name from the first British saint, Alban. The most elaborate version of his story, Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', relates that he lived in Verulamium, sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, when Christians were suffering persecution. Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from his persecutors and sheltered him in his house, where he became so impressed with the priest's piety that he converted to Christianity. When the authorities searched Alban's house, he put on the priest's cloak and presented himself in place of his guest ...
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Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the East of England region. Hertfordshire covers . It derives its name – via the name of the county town of Hertford – from a Hart (deer), hart (stag) and a Ford (crossing), ford, as represented on the county's coat of arms and on the Flag of Hertfordshire, flag. Hertfordshire County Council is based in Hertford, once the main market town and the current county town. The largest settlement is Watford. Since 1903 Letchworth has served as the prototype Garden city movement, garden city; Stevenage became the first town to expand under post-war Britain's New Towns Act 1946, New Towns Act of 1946. In 2013 Hertfordshire had a population of about 1,140,700, with Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford ...
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St Albans City Council
The City and District of St Albans () is a local authority district in Hertfordshire in the East of England region. The main urban settlements are St Albans and Harpenden. The council offices are in St Albans. History St Albans City and District is a non-metropolitan district and city created on 1 April 1974 as a merger of the Municipal Borough of St Albans, the Harpenden Urban District and most of St Albans Rural District. The municipal borough had had city status since 1877 and it was granted to the entire district by letters patent on 9 July 1974. Geography The district is in the west of Hertfordshire, bounded on the north west by Luton, on the north east by North Hertfordshire, on the east by Welwyn Hatfield, on the south by Hertsmere, on the south west by Watford and Three Rivers and on the west by Dacorum. The largest urban settlement is St Albans, followed in size by Harpenden, with lesser settlements at Redbourn, Wheathampstead, London Colney, Chiswell Green and Brick ...
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Alban Way
The Alban Way is a traffic free multi-user route along a former railway line in Hertfordshire, England, that has been constructed along the route of the former Hatfield to St Albans railway line. It runs from St Albans, close to St Albans Abbey railway station and the site of Roman Verulamium, through Fleetville and Smallford to Hatfield, ending close to Hatfield railway station. It is long. Part of National Cycle Network Route 61, which runs from the River Thames at Maidenhead to the River Lea in Ware, the Alban Way is fully tarmacked throughout making it usable all year round. It can be linked to a separate section of Route 61, also along a disused railway route, runs from Welwyn Garden City to Hertford and is called the Cole Green Way. The remains of most of the station platforms still exist along the route, with many as of 2017 having recently been refurbished along with signage and street names painted into the tarmac. A station building still stands at the London Road ...
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River Ver
The Ver is a long chalk stream in Hertfordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Colne. Course The source is in the grounds of Lynch Lodge, Kensworth Lynch on the west side of the A5 trunk road and stays on the west side for some half mile or so. It then crosses through a culvert into Markyate Cell, afterwards crosses under the A5 in culvert and runs through Markyate. The river exits above ground at the southern end of Markyate, and on through Flamstead, Redbourn, St Albans and Park Street, finally joining the River Colne at Bricket Wood. The Ver is a chalk stream, which is partly a seasonal winterbourne north of Redbourn. However, many of its natural features have been compromised as a result of being canalised during the construction of the artificial lakes at Verulamium Park in St Albans in the 1930s following the archaeological excavations of Verulamium by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and his wife Tessa. During the 1960s and 1970s it suffered serious problem ...
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Watercress
Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf vegetables consumed by humans. Watercress and many of its relatives, such as garden cress, mustard, radish, and wasabi, are noteworthy for their piquant flavors. The hollow stems of watercress float in water. The leaf structure is pinnately compound. Small, white, and green inflorescences are produced in clusters and are frequently visited by insects, especially hoverflies, such as '' Eristalis'' flies. Taxonomy Watercress is listed in some sources as belonging to the genus '' Rorippa'', although molecular evidence shows those aquatic species with hollow stems are more closely related to '' Cardamine'' than ''Rorippa''. Despite the Latin name, watercress is not particularly closely related to the flowers popularly known as nasturtiums (' ...
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Water Rail
The water rail (''Rallus aquaticus'') is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the warmer parts of its breeding range. The adult is long, and, like other rails, has a body that is flattened laterally, allowing it easier passage through the reed beds it inhabits. It has mainly brown upperparts and blue-grey underparts, black barring on the flanks, long toes, a short tail and a long reddish bill. Immature birds are generally similar in appearance to the adults, but the blue-grey in the plumage is replaced by buff. The downy chicks are black, as with all rails. The former subspecies ''R. indicus'', has distinctive markings and a call that is very different from the pig-like squeal of the western races, and is now usually split as a separate species, the brown-cheeked rail. The water rail breeds in reed beds and other ma ...
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Herts And Middlesex Wildlife Trust
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust manages over 40 nature reserves covering nearly north of London, in Hertfordshire and the historic county of Middlesex, part of which is divided between the London boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Harrow and Hillingdon. It has over 21,000 members, and is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts across the UK. It is a Registered Charity, with its Registered Office in St Albans, and had an income in the year to 31 March 2014 of over £1.5 million. The trust's activities include managing nature reserves, advising landowners on how to manage their land for wildlife, commenting on planning applications, advising planning authorities and campaigning to protect wildlife. The trust also encourages people to be active volunteers helping to maintain nature reserves. The first preparatory meeting of what was to become the trust was held on 16 November 1963, and the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Trust for Nature Conservation was incorporated on 9 October 1964. By 1970 i ...
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Lemsford Springs
Lemsford Springs is a 4 hectare nature reserve in Lemsford, Hertfordshire, England. It is managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, which purchased the site in 1970. Notable for its lagoons, the site is in the Lea valley and its other habitats are meadow, hedgerows, marsh and willow woodland. Before becoming a nature reserve, the site was used as a watercress bed. Its lagoons are fed by springs, so they never freeze over and provide an important habitat for birds in cold winters. There are two bird hides, and birds which can be seen include water rails, snipe and green sandpipers. Green sandpipers are migratory; a colour ringing project has revealed information about the travels of the Lemsford population including their breeding sites in Scandinavia.Smith K W (2002) Green sandpiper in The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. Wernham C V, Toms M P, Marchant J H, Clark J A, Siriwardena G M & Baillie S R. (eds). T & A D Poyser, London. There are ...
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Lemsford
Lemsford is a village and parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is near Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield and is in the Hatfield Villages Ward of the Borough of Welwyn/Hatfield. Lemsford Springs is a small nature reserve. Its lagoons are important for birds such as the Green sandpiper. The yearly Lemsford Fete garners thousands of visitors and is a traditional English country fete. Held at St. John's School and Church, activities include maypole dancing, raffles and live music. History The parish was created in 1858 out of the parish of Bishop's Hatfield. However, the settlement is older. Buildings of interest Lemsford Mill Lemsford Mill, which is Grade II listed, is a 19th-century structure on the River Lea. It probably occupies the site of one of four mills at Hatfield which were recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. It is now the headquarters of Ramblers Holidays, having been refurbished to provide office accommodation. It features a water wheel A water wheel is a ma ...
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