About the reserve

One of the few undeveloped river floodplains in the area, Lamesley Pastures contains two designated Local Wildlife Sites.

The land is being managed as winter water meadows with a system of ponds and ditches that control water levels to provide optimum conditions for wading birds such as lapwing, curlew, redshank and snipe.

New grasslands have been created to the east with a series of ponds and reedbeds. These provide habitats for farmland animals and birds, numbers of which are in serious decline, like skylarks, grey partridge and brown hare.

New hedges also provide homes for a wide variety of plants and animals including tree sparrows.

Durham Wildlife Trust took over the management of this site from Gateshead Council in June 2014 and will be continuing the work to develop the area for wildlife.