LOCATED just a few yards from Heathrow’s northern runway, Huckerby’s Meadows in Cranford is not your usual nature reserve.

A mixture of traditional grazing pastures, an old orchard and new meadows created on the site of an airport car park, it borders the River Crane and is now open to the public after years of restoration.

Huckerby’s Meadows provides 13 hectares of precious wild habitat for butterflies, birds and even the endangered water vole.

The nature reserve is free to visit, providing an opportunity to explore and enjoy a wildlife-friendly setting, where birdsong complements the rumble of international flights as they soar overhead.

The official opening follows decades of consultation and conservation work.

London Wildlife Trust acquired the southern section of the reserve in the mid-1990s, with work starting on the northern section - at the time an airport car park - in 2009.

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The name of the nature reserve honours the Huckerby family, who had a smallholding and grazed horses on the site for many years.

The creation of the reserve by London Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers received significant support from the boroughs of Hillingdon and Hounslow, Heathrow itself and the Heathrow Community Fund.

Visitors can now enjoy the sight of colourful kingfisher, buzzard and green woodpecker. In summer, the reserve will buzz with life as butterflies, bees and dragonflies take to the air.

The Mayor of Hillingdon, Cllr Carol Melvin, officially opened Huckerby’s Meadows on Friday. She said afterwards: It is a fantastic, wonderful space. It just goes to show you can have a nature reserve anywhere, even next to an airport!”

Learn more about Huckerby’s Meadows on London Wildlife Trust’s website: www.wildlondon.org.uk/reserves/huckerbys-meadows