Wood Lea Common S.S.S.I

Notified by the Nature Conservancy Council (the forerunner of Natural England) in 1958 under Section 23 of the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act 1949 and renotified in 1986 under Section 28 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, because it is an important site, displaying various patch-reef subfacies in the Wetherby Member of the Magnesian Limestone.

The S.S.S.I. is owned by the Sandbeck Estate and public footpath 10 (Maltby), which runs south from St Bartholomew's Church through to Roche Abbey, passes along its southwest edge and is joined by footpath 11 (Maltby) from Meadow Lane. Footpath 12 (Maltby) runs from the war memorial down to join footpath 10 towards the southern end of the S.S.S.I.

Information

Species-rich basic grassland with scrub slopes steeply down to the Maltby Dike. Outcropping reef-knolls of Lower Magnesian Limestone weathered into crags extend along the whole site, though most are concentrated in the centre, with fine exposures of the Marine Permian strata. Numerous outcrops of algal/bryozoan patch-reefs have been eroded into a series of upstanding crags. Many of them are highly weathered and this picks out the internal structure of the reefs, which can be seen in three dimensions and their material make-up, with sack-shaped, stacked algal bryozoan masses, discerned.

The southwest-facing aspect and thin soils and exposed rocks makes this a suntrap, ideal for flower-visiting insects. The long grassland contains a good range of flowering plants which support a varied invertebrate fauna.

Near Wood Lea Common S.S.S.I. are

This is an internal link icon. Roche Abbey Woodlands S.S.S.I

Maltby Common L.N.R.

Hazel Wood