Upper Byes

We've all done it. Whether walking the dog, cycling with the family, or just enjoying a moment of peace, we tend to stick to the well-worn path. It’s easy to focus on the destination, our footsteps tracing a familiar route through a local park, the surrounding nature becoming a pleasant but indistinct blur of green.

Here in Sidmouth, The Byes Riverside Park is one of our most treasured green spaces. But what if I told you that this familiar path is the central artery of an ecosystem so rich it holds nearly 50% of all species recorded in Sidmouth? What if this park cluster is home to almost 60% of all our local flowering plants?

This part of the park, known as the "Upper Byes," is much more than just a convenient route. It’s a place of astounding ecological richness, a mosaic of hidden habitats that are home to a remarkable variety of life. What secret landscapes are you passing by on your daily stroll?

The Upper Byes is the northernmost section of The Byes Riverside Park, the wonderful green space that runs alongside the River Sid. It’s a popular and well-loved route for walkers and cyclists.

Specifically, this stretch begins in Sidford and follows the path south until it reaches the bridge just to the south of Margaret's Meadow. While many of us know it as a pleasant walkway, it's also a corridor that connects several distinct and vital natural environments.

A walk along the Upper Byes path is a journey through a sequence of changing landscapes. In just a short distance, you can experience a fantastic variety of habitats, each one playing a crucial role in the area’s incredible biodiversity.

Your journey starts by passing through open amenity grassland, the familiar recreational areas perfect for a picnic or a game of catch. Soon after, the path leads you into an interesting wooded area near the rugby club, where the atmosphere becomes quieter and more enclosed, offering a home to shade-loving plants like Ramsons (wild garlic).

Emerging from the trees, the space opens up again. On one side, you'll see open pasture, while on the other, a substantial hedgerow provides a critical habitat for birds and insects. After passing the entrance to Gilchrist Field, the path takes you through the Livornia Field, a wonderful area of rough scrub and grassland. The journey concludes with a final stage where the path is flanked on both sides by high, sheltering hedgerow banks.

The Livonia Road Field is a key component of the ‘upper’ Byes section of the "Riverside Park Cluster" and plays a specific role in the local ecology. It is a small area of approximately 1.9 acres located adjacent to Gilchrist Field and bordering Livonia Road at the northern end of The Byes. The field is owned and managed by the Sid Vale Association (SVA).

Unlike the large, open wildflower expanses of Margaret’s Meadow, the Livonia Road Field is managed with a "low-intervention" approach to provide a different type of habitat:

• Scrubland Habitat: The SVA intentionally maintains this site as scrub land. In a nature recovery context, scrub is vital as it provides dense nesting cover for birds (such as warblers and finches) and sanctuary for small mammals that prefer more overhead protection than an open meadow offers.

• Key Flora: The field features a number of Silver Birch trees. These are "pioneer" species that are excellent for biodiversity, supporting hundreds of insect species which in turn provide food for the local bird and bat populations.

• The "Unruly" Strategy: Aligning with the Devon Nature Recovery Plan's objective to "delight in the unruly," the management here avoids the neat, manicured look of a park. By allowing brambles and thickets to grow alongside the birch trees, it creates a "soft edge" transition between the more formal parts of the Byes and the residential boundary of Livonia Road.

In the wider context of the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group's mapping, Livonia Road Field acts as:

• A Buffer Zone: It protects the more sensitive "core" meadows (Margaret’s and Gilchrist) from the noise and light pollution of the nearby road.

• A Foraging Corridor: It provides a "stepping stone" for bats emerging from the roosts near Sidford to travel down the River Sid toward the coast.

Given that the western side of the Upper Byes is bordered by housing, it's no surprise that you can spot several established garden ‘escapes’ and clusters of introduced daffodils that add their own character to the area.

But look closer, because this unassuming stretch of parkland is a biodiversity hotspot. The Riverside Park cluster, with the Upper Byes at its heart, is remarkably biodiverse, housing 49.8% of all species recorded across the 50 surveyed sites in Sidmouth. This incredible richness is especially true for plants, with 59.7% of all flowering plant species in the wider area found right here.

This incredible concentration of life is possible precisely because of the mosaic of habitats you walk through. The amenity grasslands, the riverside environment, the dense hedgerow scrub, and the wilder meadows like Livornia Field each provide different resources, creating a comprehensive green infrastructure that supports a huge range of species. Areas managed specifically for nature are key, thanks to the dedicated work of community groups like the Sid Vale Association (SVA) and the Friends of The Byes (FoTB). Their efforts to promote wildflower diversity in places like Livornia Field and Margaret's Meadow create sanctuaries for species like the Common Blue and Marbled White butterflies, and for important plants like Tufted Vetch, which provides food for endangered bees. It's a wonderful example of community action, much like the volunteer "Balsam Bashing" days that help clear invasive species from the river banks.

"A remarkable number of plants and trees occur in the ‘Upper Byes’ area thanks largely to the presence of the SVA owned, and managed, Livornia Field and the woodland area near the rugby club."

It's this wonderful contrast that makes the area so special. The managed parkland we enjoy for recreation exists alongside scrubbier, wilder patches that provide the critical food and shelter wildlife needs to thrive.

Even the most familiar local path can hold surprising secrets. The Upper Byes is a perfect reminder that a well-trodden route is not just a path, but a journey through a rich and varied collection of habitats that form a vital ecological corridor, hiding in plain sight.

So, the next time you find yourself walking or cycling through this beautiful part of our town, why not slow down for a moment? Now that you know its secrets, what hidden details and wild wonders will you notice just off the path?