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The Plens is an area of 12.4 acres on the northern outskirts
of Desborough. The entrance is off the road from Desborough to Pipewell, just
north of the railway bridge. Access is by foot only, but there is room to park
cars on the roadside by the entrance. The public footpath from Desborough to
Stoke Albany crosses the reserve.
A former ironstone quarry, the value of the deposits was realised in the 1850s
when the railway cutting was made, and commercial extraction of the ore began
soon afterwards. Quarrying ceased in the late 1960s, and the quarry face has now
become overgrown with hawthorn scrub throughout most of its length. Where there
are clearings in the scrub, patches of grassland, some quite large, have
developed or been created. Amongst these there are plants such as wild basil,
glaucous sedge, common spotted orchid and even greater butterfly-orchids can be
found. Clearly these areas have to be managed to ensure that the scrub does not
encroach into them and create too dense a canopy for the understory plants to
survive. Towards the north-east end of the reserve the quarry opens out into
areas with a greater variety of flowering plants. Most noticeable here are the
campions, with red, white and bladder campions, all in quite large numbers, and
amongst them a few of the pink hybrids that occur when the red and white species
cross. This end of the reserve supports dog rose, willow and gorse and a wide
variety of annual plants, most noticeably the rare grass vetchling.
Details of other Northamptonshire reserves can be found at:
www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/bcnp/nres/northantsreserves.htm
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