Walthamstow Marshes
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Walthamstow Marsh is now a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest, it was once an area of lammas land, strips of meadow used for growing crops and grazing cattle.
Although there are now numerous reservoirs north of Coppermill Lane, the area of marsh below here escaped both development and use for gravel excavation (just) to becoming an untouched refuge for wildlife, crossed only by the railway lines in 1840 and 1870.
The marshes are one of the last remaining examples of semi-natural wetland in Greater London. They contain a variety of plant communities typical of a former flood plain location, such as a range of neutral grassland types, sedge marsh, reed swamp, sallow scrub and areas of tall herb vegetation. Associated with this diversity of habitat are several species of plant and insect which are uncommon in the London area.
The marshes contain several species of insect with a restricted distribution in the London area such as the Essex skipper butterfly Thymelicus lineola, an uncommon hoverfly Volucella inanis and a pyralid moth Shoeribius micronellus.
The breeding bird community contains several species typically associated with marshland habitats such as reed bunting, reed, sedge and willow warblers. A variety of wintering birds visit the marshes and neighbouring reservoirs while in autumn flocks of finches are to be found feeding on the seeds of the tall herbs.
Walthamstow Marsh was the location of Alliott Verdon Roe's later attempts to build and fly his early aeroplanes.
