MILLER PLACE FARM

LORTON

THE FARM

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

VISITORS

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES

The farm has an unusually wide range of plants; 47 species counted in all.

GEOLOGY

Skiddaw Slates. These are characteristically lime-free, dark grey to black in colour and poor in base fertility. The clay rocks break down easily producing over time an acidic, immature, skeletal soil.

SOIL TYPE(S)

The soil type covering the largest area is acidic, nutrient deficient podsol; this is shallow and stony containing much fine clay and silt. This causes lateral drainage on steep slopes resulting in a leached, stony accumulation of black mor humus irregularly stained brown with iron.

There is also evidence of a soil of a high base status mainly composed of rock particles not greatly modified by chemical change and capable of supporting sessile oak wood as found at Keskadale on the other side of the same massif.

FAUNA

Peregrine Falcon Redstart

There are 33 species of birds, including Peregrine, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Redstart, Whinchat and Barn Owl.

There are 9 mammals identified including red squirrels and hare.

There are at least 10 types of butterfly, including Orange Tip, Painted Lady and Common Blue.

HEDGEROWS

There are 300 metres of hedgerows, all maintained in the traditional way, being left so that there is a canopy for biodiversity.

DRY STONE WALLS

There are in the region of 4300 metres of dry stone walls. The intake walls are 3-4 metres high. There has been much re-building through the ESA scheme and 50 metres are scheduled to be re-built.

FLORA

The Skiddaw Slate hills support the main areas of heather heath in the Lake District. On the lower part of the north facing slopes of the ghylls, but still at an altitude of up to 500 metres, calluna heath gives way to bilberry heath plus sheep’s fescue & brown bent grassland and sphagnum capillifolium in the ghyll bottoms.

The lower slopes of Whiteside are scree in various stages of vegetative cover as a result of colonization by cryptogramma crispa. This has created enough humus to support bell heather, heather ling and bilberry.

Bracken is generally a sign that the area was once covered by oak woodland; this is the second largest category of plant on Whiteside (or the common).

There is a significant area of bog growing mainly sphagnum capillifolium with occasional common cotton grass, common sedge, bog asphodel, marsh lousewort, cranberry, and round leaved sundew, all typical of an acidic peat bog.

Pauline Blair has discovered a sessile oak on about the 250 metre contour line, the girth of the trunk indicates an age in excess of 200 years. This is probably the sole survivior of the original native oak wood, which was once the dominant vegetation.

One of the fields on the farm is an old damp meadow and contains Great Burnett, Ragged Robin, and Meadow Sweet.

Mosser Fell and Common has the rare White Beak Sedge and the Alpine Catchfly; the only place where it grows in the UK.

(Information derived from A Moorland Mapping submitted by Pauline Blair as part of her work towards a Certificate in Nature Conservation at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2002).

VERNACULAR BUILDINGS & FEATURES

The barn, recently rebuilt and used for secure storage, originally dates from the early 1800's.

INCOME AND PAYMENTS

Single Farm Payment plus Hill Farming Allowance is equivalent to 45% of the farm income. 40% is derived from the ESA and Higher Level Stewardship Scheme.

Income from livestock is approximately 15%.