Hatch Park

Infobox SSSI


name=Hatch Park
aos=Kent
interest=Biological
gridref=TR063410
area=71.8 Hectares (177.4 acres)
notifydate=1968

http://www.natureonthemap.org.uk/map.aspx?
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Hatch Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) near Mersham and Brabourne, five miles (8 km) from Ashford in Kent, England (gbmapping|TR063410).

The site is of special interest for its unimproved acidic grassland, a scarce habitatin Kent, with its ancient pollarded woodlands, supporting the richest
epiphytic lichen community in the county. The grassland is the remnant of a formerly much more extensive deerpark, and the turf here is believed to have remained unbroken for the last 500 years. [ [http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1003805.pdf SSSI citation] ] The deerpark still exists but on a smaller scale, including some artificial ponds and marshy areas.

Hatch Park is overlooked by the distinctive 1762 built Robert Adam Knatchbull family seat ‘Mersham-le-Hatch’ frequently shortened ‘Mersham Hatch’ which leased from Lord Brabourne to Leila Rendel’s The Caldecott Community from 1945 has c.2004 passed into other private ownership. This understated large winged-house; Robert Adam’s only complete build; in Kentish redbrick layered by diligent Georgian artisan trowel has mortar slithered as fine as sugared-cream between the tiers of ‘a delicate, sweet Charlotte cake’ of its mannered day. Leila Rendel’s Caldecott children frequently galloped through Hatch Park of a summer Saturday afternoon dislodging cinnabars from short spiky ragwort against which loose reined pony hooves drummed upon spongey close-cropped sandy rabbit and deer nibbled swards bounded by expansive brackened shards sliced through with delinieated pathways.

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