About the reserve

The name "Stocking" indicates that what is now a field was once woodland cleared for agriculture long ago, leaving the land covered with "stocks" or tree stumps. Large old hedges border the meadow on two sides (north and west) and contain a variety of shrubby species. Bramble thickets adjacent to these hedges provide breeding sites for blackcap, garden warbler and long-tailed tit in season.

The brook is fringed with alders, and harbours in its fast flowing waters, nymphs of caddis, alderfly, mayfly and stonefly, as well as river limpets and other invertebrates indicative of relatively unpolluted, oxygen-rich water.

The meadow has a very rich flora. Numbers of common spotted and heath spotted orchids occur here in close proximity, their species integrity presumably maintained by differences in microhabitat and reproduction, although some hybrids do occur.