Our verdict
A properly accessible little reserve — hard-standing paths, right off Butts Pond Industrial Estate with parking close by — that makes a easy add-on to a Sturminster Newton town visit rather than a walk in its own right.
Sturminster Newton's own Local Nature Reserve, on the last surviving fragment of grazing land from the old Sturminster livestock market, once the biggest in the south-west. Meadows, hedges, ditches and ponds shelter all three British newt species, including the protected great crested newt.
Local Nature Reserve — a council-protected green space, usually free to wander.