Adjacent to the Coombe Hill Canal is a large area of wet meadowland situated midway between Gloucester and Tewkesbury to the west of the A38, which was purchased by the trust in 1999.

c. xxx) due to the new owners being unable to afford to repair flood damage to the lock that connected it to the River Severn.

[4] In 1954 the canal and certain fenland and flood meadow areas were notified as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and renotified in 1995 for boundary alterations.

[8] The canal was built to link the Forest of Dean coalfields with Cheltenham via the Severn, but competition and other reasons[vague] led to its closure.

The trust has carried out management work with aid of Severn Trent Water and the then Nature Conservancy Council to restore the derelict canal.

[11] Fuller information for Coombe Hill Canal (grid reference SO887272) is provided in the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves handbook.

strawberry clover, oxeye daisy and the Severn Vale speciality, corky-fruited water-dropwort, are present along the path.

Scrub-cutting on a rotational basis maintains habitat for breeding birds and, with clearance of the towpath, also keeps the Canal edges clear of tall vegetation.

[11] Fuller information for Coombe Hill Meadows (grid reference SO874273) is provided in the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserves handbook.

[12] Historically, management of the area included drainage with some of the meadows ploughed (reducing wildlife interest).

Two large shallow pools, called scrapes, have been excavated in the meadows next to the canal as well as a smaller pond next to the public footpath.

As the floodwater recedes the bare mud around the ditches and scrapes, and the area of fen provide breeding and foraging habitat for waders such as common snipe.

[13] The conservation programme aims to maintain a good wetland habitat which will benefit the important gatherings of birds, invertebrates and plants on the reserve.