Hannah's Meadows is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the Teesdale

Teesdale (district)

Teesdale was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in County Durham, England. Its council was based in Barnard Castle and it was named after the valley of the River Tees....

 district of south-west County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It consists of three fields, located at Low Birk Hatt Farm, on the north side of Blackton Reservoir

Blackton Reservoir

Blackton Reservoir is a reservoir in County Durham, England. It is situated in Baldersdale, about 4 miles west of Cotherstone, where the River Balder joins the River Tees.It is owned by Northumbrian Water and supplies water for Teesdale....

, in Baldersdale

Baldersdale

Baldersdale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in England, north of Barnard Castle. Its principal settlements are Hury and Briscoe. Baldersdale lies within the traditional boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire...

, some 7 km west of the village of Cotherstone

Cotherstone

Cotherstone is a village and civil parish in the Pennine hills, in Teesdale, County Durham, England.Cotherstone lies within the historic county boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire, but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District it was transferred to County Durham for...

. The site is named after Hannah Hauxwell

Hannah Hauxwell

Hannah Hauxwell is a retired English farmer who has been the subject of several television documentaries on Yorkshire Television....

, whose farm it was for over 50 years.
Because Miss Hauxwell employed traditional farming practices, with no re-seeding and no artificial fertilisers, the meadows are thought to be the least improved in upland Durham, and, as a result, have a very rich floral composition, including rare species such as frog orchid, Coeloglossum viride, moonwort, Botrychium lunaria

Botrychium lunaria

Botrychium lunaria is a species of fern known by the common name common moonwort. It is the most widely distributed moonwort, growing throughout the Northern Hemisphere across Eurasia and from Alaska to Greenland, as well as parts of the Southern Hemisphere including South America and Australia...

, and adder's-tongue, Ophioglossum vulgatum

Ophioglossum vulgatum

Ophioglossum vulgatum, commonly known as the Southern adderstongue, is a species of the plant genus Ophioglossum. It is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with a scattered distribution in Europe, Asia, northwestern Africa, and eastern North America.This plant grows from a...

.

In 1988, Low Birk Hatt Farm was purchased by the Durham Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust, founded in 1971, is a registered charity which aims to protect wildlife and promote nature conservation in parts of County Durham and Tyne and Wear, England...

, which now manages it as Hannah's Meadows nature reserve; one of the farm buildings—which are excluded from the SSSI—has been renovated as an unmanned visitor centre. In order to preserve the special characteristics of the site, the Trust continues to manage the farm in the traditional manner.