Yellow-field

The first day of our annual monitoring of the environmental areas of Whitemoor Marshalling Yards, which are one of the most biodiverse brownfield sites in Cambridgeshire with an interesting mix of acid-loving and chalk-loving species. Although maybe 'yellowfield' is a more appropriate name, as large areas are dominated by bird's-foot-trefoil, perforate St.John's-wort, biting stonecrop and wild mignonette, all of which have yellow flowers.

The marshalling yards have a long and proud history: just after the Second World War they were the largest in the world, having miraculously avoided being bombed by the Germans. However, from the 1960's onward they were in decline and they closed in the early 1980's. You can see one of the very few original buildings that survived the major re-development of the site in 2003, when capacity was once again required following construction of the high-speed link to the Channel Tunnel.