Skaters' Meadow

Skaters’ Meadow is a two-hectare nature reserve beside the river Cam in Newnham Croft, Cambridge. It lies on the floodplain between the Paradise Local Nature Reserve and Grantchester Meadows. In the 19th century the flooded land froze and skaters paid to circle the old gas lamp that still stands at its centre. The meadow is owned by Cambridge Past, Present & Future and managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The meadow is a flower-rich wet grassland that supports common spotted orchids, cuckooflowers, meadowsweets, marsh-marigolds and ragged-robins. Grass snakes glide through the damp grass and blackcaps sing in the scrub. The site has no public paths, but it can be seen from the road called Grantchester Meadows. Visitors stand on the roadside verge and look across the reserve. The gas lamp marks the spot where skaters once gathered. The river Cam flows past one edge of the meadow. In spring the marsh-marigolds light up the wet ground. Blackcaps nest in the hedgerows beside the road.