Wiltshire BNG at Lydeway

Five hedgerows and two mature oaks mark the boundaries of Land at Lydeway, near Devizes. The site was arable land, growing cereals for at least a decade, before Greenshank acquired it. Cereal production stopped over winter, ahead of this scheme, in 2025.

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From 2026, we're restoring Lydeway with a deliberately hands-off approach. Rather than planting to a fixed design, we're leaving the hedgerows to grow out and seed into the fields, and low-density grazing shapes the resulting mosaic of scrub and grassland as it spreads.

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Around ten hectares of the site becomes species-rich grassland this way, with a further four hectares turning to scrub. Small clusters of native shrubs go in only where natural spread needs a kickstart. Five new ponds and a new ditch bring wetland habitat wherever the site's hydrology allows it, and the oak trees and hedgerow network stay exactly where they are, left to grow out rather than cut back.

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Lydeway is also a Nutrient Neutrality scheme. The site sits in the Hampshire Avon catchment, under pressure from phosphorus. Stopping cereal production here keeps an estimated 13.6kg of phosphorus a year out of the Avon Special Area of Conservation, generating credits for developments in Salisbury and the wider catchment.

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A Conservation Covenant with Fera Science as Responsible Body secures the BNG scheme for 30 years and the NN scheme in perpetuity.