Barrow Haven Reedbed
Parish: Barrow-upon-Humber
OS: 112 • GR: TA 061236 • Map ref: 32
12.70 hectares (31.60acres) • Freehold 1989
Habitat type: Marsh/Wetland
Location and Access
The reserve is bounded by the New Holland-Barton railway to the south, the Humber estuary to the north, Barrow Haven to the east and a private access road to the west. Access is on foot across the bridge from the east side of Barrow Haven, which is accessible by a public road and where there is a small car park. A public footpath runs to the north of the clay pits and cuts through the reserve. For safety reasons and in order to avoid disturbance visitors are requested to keep to established or marked tracks. A viewing hide is reached from the path in the south-east corner.
Description and Management
One of the most important of the series of disused flooded clay pits on the Humber Bank. Clay digging was completed here in about 1950, leaving a pit of varying water depth. Extensive reedbeds (Phragmites, known sometimes as Norfolk Reed) and stands of great reedmace with areas of open water have since developed. The aquatic flora here is richer than in many of the other Humber Bank pits, extensive beds of mare's-tail being a notable feature. Patches of hawthorn scrub, bramble thicket and rough grassland with a pleasantly varied flora surround the water and reedbed areas.
The reserve includes the sea bank and a strip of saltmarsh extending to mean high water mark. More than 150 species of birds have been recorded of which 60 have been known to breed, including great crested grebe, pochard, tufted duck, ruddy duck, water rail, bearded tit, and reed and sedge warblers. Bitterns bred until the 1960s and still occur occasionally as visitors in winter.
Management includes scrub control, reed-cutting and the maintenance of shallow margins for the benefit of reedbed birds.
