Grid Ref: SK968728

Status:     Site of Nature Conservation Importance (Lincolnshire Trust)

Old Quarry is a 6.5ha former Limestone working just off Burton Road.   It has been designated as Critical Natural Asset for the following reasons:

1) The site is largely waste ground with some scrub.   There is a small area (O.Sha approx.) of rough calcareous limestone grassland supporting typical calcicoiles such as salad burnet Sanguisorba minor subsp. minor, quaking grass Briza media and ladies bedstraw Galium verum. The site is one of 5 calcareous grassland sites in the city, though the calcareous grassland is only a small part of this site, representing 5% of the City's calcareous grassland resource. There has been an almost 40% decline in this habitat in Lincolnshire since 1940.   The site represents an opportunity to create more limestone grassland by appropriate management.

2) The 6ha of hawthorn Crataegus monogyna scrub (representing 27% of Lincoln's scrub habitat) supports high numbers of passerines and other bird species, including breeding willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, cuckoo, pheasant and greenfinch. Kestrel and owls (probably tawny) hunt the site.

3) The site is a component in a complex of SNCIs running north-south along Burton Road, providing a valuable wildlife corridor to the north of Lincoln, an area with little green space.

Landscape Value

See West Cliff, Burton Road.