A win for Wiltshire's wildlife as new RSPB nature reserve announced

Wiltshire's wildlife will receive a boost, through a new partnership between Wiltshire Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Roundbarrow Farm lies between Firsdown and Pitton, East of Salisbury, and will be transformed from its previous tenancy as an intensive dairy farm into a chalk downland nature reserve - a site for chalk grassland wildlife to become established and flourish. This is a long-term project which will require several years of reducing soil fertility before new flower-rich chalk grasslands will be sown. The creation of a downland nature reserve will enhance familiar farmland wildlife and bird populations and re-establish the characteristic chalk downland diversity of insect and plant life.

This project will contribute to nature recovery and assist in delivering the council's wider Business Plan objectives and its ambitions to improve Green & Blue Infrastructure and long-term climate resilience.

By removing previous sources of nutrient pollutants e.g. from cattle manure, which can enter watercourses after rainfall, this initiative will also help improve water quality in the River Test catchment and internationally protected habitats in the Solent estuary. It will also provide strategic mitigation for nutrient burdens arising from housing developments in the catchment.

To deliver nutrient mitigation scheme objectives and engage external expertise to help drive the project forward, the council has leased the site to a nature charity. Following a competitive bidding process in 2023, the RSPB was announced as the successful partner. The charity has both the knowledge and experience of undertaking a project like this, in this location and habitat, having established a nature reserve at nearby Winterbourne Downs, approximately eight miles to the north of what will now be called RSPB Roundbarrow Nature Reserve.

The RSPB has been busy creating special homes for nature in this local area. RSPB Winterbourne Downs, just five miles from Roundbarrow Farm, was established to create landscape-scale chalk grassland and provide a safe haven for nesting Stone-curlews in their Wessex stronghold, and in so doing create a strategically important stepping-stone for downland biodiversity from Porton Down to expand towards Salisbury Plain. In the first 15 years significant progress has been made with over 200 ha of species-rich chalk grassland established from former arable land, as well as chalk banks and scrapes to enable the expansion across the reserve of chalk specialist butterflies such as Adonis Blue, Small Blue, and Marsh Fritillary butterflies and up to nine nesting pairs of Stone-curlews and 18 pairs of Lapwings. 

The primary objective for the Roundbarrow site is for nature to thrive undisturbed, while grazing will be maintained at lower intensity than previously to help maintain the grassland. There will be opportunities for the public to attend special open days each year, and work has commenced to create a new permissive bridleway that is due to open in May, and will connect the villages of Pitton and Firsdown for the first time. The bridleway will follow the site boundary and will afford views of the positively changing landscape. Some of the dwellings and outbuildings are also being considered for separate commercial and public uses.

A public drop-in event in September 2023 sought to identify other opportunities for engagement and involvement. Ideas from these engagement sessions that are currently being explored include community orchard and allotment areas, opportunities to strengthen links with the local farming community, and finding partners to develop educational and training opportunities.

Cllr Dominic Muns, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste, said: "Roundbarrow Farm has an exciting journey ahead as a site that will benefit local communities and nature - both locally and further down the River Test and Solent catchment.

"We're pleased to be working with the world-renowned RSPB on this project, and we share a common ambition and shared vision to allow an exemplar chalk grassland to establish.

"There will be plenty of opportunities for residents to play their part in this project and our aim is for this to have a community-focus right at the heart of it."

Patrick Cashman, RSPB Site Manager for the Wiltshire nature reserves, said: "This is a rare opportunity to create a new downland nature reserve from scratch at the former Roundbarrow Farm.  Being an ex-dairy farm, the fields are currently mostly productive grassland and crops with a few pioneer plants on disturbed ground. We now can begin the process to create flower-rich chalk grassland at scale, which over the next 10 years will begin to attract and support a cornucopia of chalk loving blooms, bees, butterflies and birds. We will also be able to think about the how hedgerows, scrubby edges, woodland and cultivated ground, together with grassland, can interplay for the greatest variety of wildlife. 

"This is an inspirational project Wiltshire Council have embarked upon with RSPB and presents a fantastic opportunity to put nature back in the countryside."

People can find out more about Roundbarrow's evolution on The Wiltshire Council website Roundbarrow Nature Reserve - Wiltshire Council (opens new window).