Windsor Hill SSSI

Windsor Hill (gbmapping|SP825027) is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Buckinghamshire, England. It lies within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The site was notified as an SSSI in 1951. It is 61.8 hectares in area.

The site is featured in the Nature Conservation Review

The site is best known as one of three extant British locations for the Red Helleborine orchid, which is confined to a small section of the site; this section is managed as a nature reserve by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

The conspicuous knoll at the north-western extremity of the site is known as Kop Hill, whilst at the southern end of the site lies Pink Hill.

The Black Hedge is a hedgerow believed to be of Saxon origin, running along the base of Kop and Windsor Hills.

ite Description

The wood consists of an extensive tract of the Chiltern escarpment, situated above Princes Risborough. It contains beech woodlands, scrub and chalk grassland.

The beech woodlands incorporate communities characteristic of soils on the Clay-with-flints of the Chiltern plateau and the chalky deposits of the scarp slopes. Associated with the beech on the plateau are oak and occasional birch whilst on the slopes, the associated species are Ash and Whitebeam. Both even-aged and more mixed stands are represented, the latter typically with a shrub layer including Gorse and Honeysuckle on the plateau, and Elder and Hazel on the slopes.

On the plateau, brambles, Bracken and Rosebay willowherb occupy extensive patches, but a more mixed ground flora occurs between these, including Creeping Soft-grass "Holcus mollis", Hairy Brome "Bromus ramosus", Tufted Hair-grass "Deschampsia cespitosa", Wood Millet "Milium effusum" and Wood Melick "Melica uniflora". Pill Sedge "Carex pilulifera", Hairy Wood-rush "Luzula pilosa" and Slender St. John's-wort "Hypericum pulchrum" are found in more heathy areas, and the rushes "Juncus effusus" and "Juncus conglomeratus|J. conglomeratus" are present in damper areas.

On the slopes Dog's-mercury "Mercurialis perennis" and Woodruff "Galium odoratum" are abundant, while more local species include Nettle-leaved Bellflower "Campanula trachelium", White "Cephalanthera damasonium", Broad-leaved "Epipactis helleborine" and Narrow-

lipped Helleborines "E. leptochila", Yellow Bird's-nest "Monotropa hypopitys" and Scaly Male-fern "Dryopteris affinis".

Kop Hill also has some dirt jumbs on as well up one of the slopes

Juniper scrub occurs on Windsor Hill itself, where it is associated with various other typical chalk shrubs and chalk grassland with an abundance of the moss "Pseudoscleropodium purum" and Common Valerian "Valeriana officinalis". There are patches of bare chalk with forget-me-nots "Myosotis" spp. and Common Mullein "Verbascum thapsus".

On Kop Hill, hawthorn dominates the scrub, and the grassland is less mossy. Several localised plant species such as Squinancywort "Asperula cynanchica" Chalk Eyebright "Euphrasia pseudokerneri", Horseshoe Vetch "Hippocrepis comosa", Autumn Gentian "Gentianella amarella" and Clustered Bellflower "Campanula glomerata" occur. A further small area of chalk grassland dominated by Wood False-brome "Brachypodium sylvaticum" and Glaucous Sedge "Carex flacca" occurs at the foot of Pink Hill.

Invertebrates

23 species of butterfly have been recorded, including Brown Hairstreak "Thecla betulae", which requires scrub thickets andwoodland edge habitats. The juniper colony supports several species of insect specific to this host plant. The snail fauna includes "Abida secale", "Helicella itala" and "Pomatias elegans".

The Local pro (rob Mills) Teaches many students Such as sam gammon at the dirt jumbs up one of the slopes