Berengrave Nature Reserve

Medway Council secured nearly £43,000 to improve access to this former chalk pit, which is a Local Nature Reserve and Site of Nature Conservation Interest. Funding from WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental) enabled new steps and boardwalks to be built. It opened on 26 April 2006.The reserve provides a wide variety of habitats, including ponds, reedbed, woodland and grassland, with good views over Motney Reedbeds.

In the central area of the chalk pit, there is a lake area which floods into willow carr and reedbed. In summer, reed and sedge warblers breed here. The willow carr leads to an area of drier woodland, where birds such as chiffchaffs, blackcaps, blue tits, great tits and woodpeckers may be seen.

The glades are open areas within the woodland. Here sunlight can reach the ground and wild flowers flourish. The washmill ponds are relics from when the site was a working chalk pit. Chalk from the pit had to be broken up in the washmills to remove the flint. It could then be baked with clay to produce cement. The washmills now provide a home for frogs, toads and newts, which visit in the spring to lay eggs.