New volunteer centre planned for Dorset nature reserve
The county's Wildlife Trust also wants a new car park for Lyscombe Farm
A volunteer centre and new car park is planned for one of Dorset’s significant nature reserves.
The county's Wildlife Trust is asking for the conversion of a farm building to create a home and the demolition and conversion of vacant farm buildings to create a ‘volunteer hub’ at Lyscombe Farm near Piddletrenthide.
The Trust is also hoping to convert a farmyard into a meadow and create a car park for up to 24 vehicles.
The nature reserve is one of the few places which can offer ‘nitrate credits’ to off-set works which might have an impact of the catchment streams and rivers which flow into Poole Harbour.
The former working farm, ten miles north east of Dorchester, was acquired by the Dorset Wildlife Trust and Natural England in March 2024 as a nature reserve, consisting of 335 hectares of chalk downland, grassland, wild-flower meadow, ancient woodland and a cluster of buildings.
Existing designations on the farm include a 50-hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Sites of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) and several Scheduled Monuments including Lyscombe Chapel.
For several decades, the farm has practiced wildlife-friendly land management techniques within the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and under the new ownership will continue to work, in partnership, with adjoining landowners.
Said a joint statement at the time the farm was bought: “Whilst the primary interest of all the partners is to see the area managed for nature recovery, this will also serve to reduce the levels of harmful nutrients entering Poole Harbour. Poole Harbour’s wildlife and water quality is suffering badly from an excess of nutrients coming down its waterways.
"These originate from both housing (via treated sewage which still contains high levels of nutrients) and significantly, from fertilisers and manure applied to farmed land. By adopting a more sustainable form of land management, nutrients entering the top of the catchment at Lyscombe will be reduced both by removing inputs, and through natural recovery measures such as creating new wetland habitat that can capture nutrients.”
Access to the site is via a private lane off of Drake’s Lane, which runs between Cheselbourne and Piddletrenthide.
Comments can be made on application to Dorset Council until January 10th.