Maisie’s Meadow & Jazz’s Orchard
Maisie’s Meadow & Jazz’s Orchard There is a small triangular field near near the Three Moorhens pub, Hitchin which is a happy place for me as I like to search the area for signs of mini-beast activity. I'm sure the field looks unprepossessing to most people, bordered by a noisy road but is a 1.5 acre patch on the edge of Hitchin which has proved a good place for me to learn about butterflies, bees, etc. The field is associated with Hitchin Priory hotel, but is cut off from their grounds by a footpath and bounded by roads on the other two sides, thus the land appears to have no commercial value and has been neglected. The site is light soil with a line of mature trees to the east (mostly Common Limes and Horse Chestnut), a line of scrub to the north including Hawthorn and Dogwood, and open and very sandy to the south, making it a sunny site. There is an informal east-west footpath used by many a dog-walker which divides the site into two. In 2018 a neig...