Ashleworth Ham received this designation because it is one of three sites in the Severn Vale where migratory waterfowl winter.

[1][2] The site has three units of assessment and is part managed as a nature reserve by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust.

[1][3] The site is fen, marsh, swamp lowland, open water ditches, neutral grassland and hedges divide many of the fields.

[4] Meerend Thicket is listed in the ‘Tewkesbury Borough Local Plan to 2011’, adopted March 2006, Appendix 3 'Nature Conservation',' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

[5] This part of the Vale, which is alluvium over Lower Lias clay, has been greatly affected by drainage and other agricultural improvements.

Tufted duck, pochard, goldeneye and great crested and little grebe are amongst the diving birds at peak floods.

The reserve flora includes common meadow-rue and great burnet which is typical of old, unimproved neutral meadows.