Elwick’s Amphibians, Reptiles, Fish and Invertebrates Amphibians

Five species of native amphibian are found in the North East, three newts, the frog and the toad and all five have at least a webbed toe-hold in Elwick. The most common is the Frog which will probably be present throughout the Parish. Frogs don’t breed in running water but can breed quite happily in small, shallow pools. As there aren’t many ponds in the Parish other than in people’s gardens, it is likely that the village is quite a stronghold for them locally. Toads tend to be found in large water bodies. Unlike frogs, their tadpoles are poisonous so they can share the water with fish that would eat frog tadpoles. A few years ago, George Howe witnessed a mass migration of thousands of tiny toadlets that had recently emerged from the water, crossing an arable field near Scotland Wood. These will almost certainly have come from Crookfoot Reservoir. At present there aren’t any formal records of toads from anywhere else in the Parish; this may be because there aren’t any largish water bodies for them other than Crookfoot or it may just be that they are there but no-one has reported them yet. The Smooth Newt is very much the common or garden newt. Like the frog it will live happily in garden ponds but if anything its young are even more vulnerable to being eaten by fish. It is usually a pale brown colour but some individual newts in Barbara Irving’s garden on the village green were very dark brown. In the breeding season, male smooth newts have a great crest, which sometimes leads to them being misidentified as Great Crested Newts but they are very different in size. Great Crested Newts are by far our largest newts, up to 17cm long. They have a warty skin with contrasts markedly with the other two species of newt. There is a record from 2005 of a Great Crested Newt in a small pond, just west of the A19 and there are a couple of records of it from garden ponds in the village. The Palmate Newt is our smallest newt, though only just smaller than the Smooth Newt. It can be hard to tell apart from a Smooth Newt except in the breeding season when the male Palmate Newt grows a filament on the end of its tail instead of a crest like a male Smooth Newt. It is likely that its natural territory is the more upland areas like the North York Moors and that where it occurs in the lowlands in the Tees Valley that it is as a result of an introduction. Palmates have been found both in a garden in the village, where they were definitely introduced a few years ago and in a pond west of Elwick windmill. Reptiles In the North East, reptiles appear to be largely confined to the coast and the uplands; there are not thought to be any reptiles in the lowland areas of Durham and Cleveland except for a handful of Common Lizards near quarries and railway sidings close to the A1M. However someone who used to live at High Stotfold remembers lizards on the walls around there and there are stories of snakes near Middle Stotfold; so who knows there may be some scaly mysteries still to solve in Elwick. Fish There are very few records of fish in Elwick Parish. Other than Crookfoot Reservoir the only sizeable water bodies are the long, ornamental lake next to the obelisk at Wynyard and the pond in the country park on Wynyard estate. Otherwise the ponds are small and shallow and probably dry out occasionally thus preventing fish from surviving in them. Several becks flow through the Parish but again most of them have very little water flow for much of the year. The largest of the becks is Close Beck which is a continuation of the Amerston Beck and Newton Hanzard Beck. The Environment Agency has records from 2004 of Bullhead and Brown Trout from Close Beck downstream from Newton Hanzard Beck and Bullhead has been seen in Amerston Beck, just downstream from Crookfoot Reservoir. In 2013, Elwick Primary School recorded 3-Spined Sticklebacks in Char Beck where it flows through the Gill and it is likely that Sticklebacks are present in the other becks as well. Invertebrates Invertebrates are generally difficult to identify to species level and there doesn’t seem to have been any systematic surveys of them in Elwick. A few species are mentioned here as they are either rare or unusual. Perhaps the most significant invertebrate so far discovered is the White letter Hairstreak butterfly. This species feeds on Elm as has been found in the past in the woods north of the A689. As Elm has largely died off then White letter Hairstreak has become quite a rare butterfly. The Spindle Ermine moth is feeds on Spindle trees and has been found on the as the Spindle trees on the Elwick to Dalton footpath. As these are the only naturally occurring Spindle trees in Cleveland, it is likely that this is the only place in Cleveland where the Spindle Ermine moth can be found. So-called because its black and yellow stripes resemble a wasp, the Wasp Beetle is a type of longhorn beetle whose larvae live in dead wood. It has been found on the northern perimeter of Scotland Wood. Scotland Wood itself is in Durham bat that particular Wasp Beetle was on the Elwick side of the fence post so just scrapes in as a resident of Elwick. The extraordinarily striking caterpillar of the Alder Moth, with its bright yellow and black stripes and club-like hairs, was found on the Willow in Elwick Wildlife Garden. This species is rarely recorded north of the Tees.

Elwick Birds

For the most part, the birds in Elwick are quite typical of most rural parishes with a range of garden and farmland birds. However there are some features that are unique in a Hartlepool context that make the Parish of notable ornithological interest.  

One of these is Crookfoot Reservoir, easily the largest water body in the north of Cleveland, although technically half of it is in County Durham, with the county boundary running up the middle of the reservoir.  The water level in the reservoir is fairly constant so there are few muddy margins and hence it is of little use for wading birds but it does support a variety of water birds.  Notable among these are the Great Crested Grebes which nest in the shallows, particularly at the northern end where they can be observed undertaking their complex mating dance.  Mute Swans are also regulars on the reservoir and a few years ago a pair of Black Swans was in residence although as far as is known they didn’t breed there.  The northern end of the reservoir is surrounded by tall trees and the combination of these with the large area of open water has attracted passing Ospreys to stay for a day or two on occasion.  

The woods around Wynyard are some of the most extensive between the Tees and the Tyne.  It was here that the first Cleveland breeding record of Buzzard in modern times occurred.  The species is now regularly seen over these woods with as many as 13 being seen at one time.  The size of the woods and their relative lack of disturbance have encouraged Goshawks to colonise.  This species hasn’t been proved to breed there yet but individual birds are seen in most years.  Honey Buzzard is also suspected to have bred there in the recent past.  Most of the trees at Wynyard are conifers and as these have become mature and started to produce cones they regularly attract Crossbills, which are present throughout the year.  These stocky finches are specialist feeders on cones and, as their name suggests, their bill is crossed at the end which allows them to prise the cones open to extract the seeds.      

Farmland birds have been in decline across the UK for several decades and there are now only half as many as there were in 1970.  This decline is continuing with Skylarks down by a fifth and Grey Partridge numbers down by two-thirds in the past 15 years.  In an attempt to reverse this decline, several farm holdings in Elwick are currently in Higher Level Stewardship, which includes measures such as leaving wide margins of vegetation around arable fields for birds to feed and breed in.  

One farmland bird that has declined particularly dramatically is the Corn Bunting.  The Teesmouth Bird Club’s “Breeding Bird Atlas of Cleveland 1999-2006” recorded a total of 23 breeding pairs for the County, almost all in the land on the western fringe of Hartlepool.  This was down from 50-100 pairs in the late 1970s.  However by 2006 only three pairs remained, two of them around Elwick.  In subsequent years the only place with a reasonable chance of seeing Corn Bunting was around Craddon Bank to the east of the village but even those have disappeared now and the only remaining Corn Buntings in Cleveland appear to be a pair around Amerston.      

Elwick Mammals

Mammals are much more cryptic than birds and often go unseen and unrecorded.  The small mammals in particular are hard to see and harder still to identify.  For example it is likely that all three British species of shrew live in the Parish but only the rarest of the three, the Water Shrew has so far been recorded.  As its name suggests, the Water Shrew is normally associated with streams and ponds where it lives in burrows on the bankside but its presence in Elwick was discovered when a dead specimen was found beside the footpath from High Stotfold to Amerston.  Oddly this Water Shrew was in a pasture field, at least 200m from the nearest water.  

Hedgehogs and Moles are classed with the shrews in the Order of Insectivores.  Both of these species are very widespread in the Parish.  

Of the rodents, Field Voles, Wood Mice and Brown Rats are all present and will be very widespread.  Bank Vole and House Mouse haven’t been formally recorded in the Parish to date but they will undoubtedly be present and the Bank Vole, at least, found in most of the hedges and woods.  The Harvest Mouse is a very rare species in the North East and another one for which there are no current or historical records for the Parish.  However it was known from nearby areas at Grindon and Mordon, which are not that far to the south and west so it may well be present or, if no longer present, may be remembered by older farmers.

The largest of the voles, the Water Vole, was once found in most rivers and streams but it has disappeared from almost everywhere in the North East in the last 20 years.  Its decline has been particularly dramatic in Hartlepool over the past decade and it may be that it is now extinct in the borough.  In Elwick it was found on the Craddon Beck near the Devil’s Elbow and on the Char Beck in the Ghyll as recently as 2009 but it is not known whether it is still present.  Jack Smurthwaite remembers Water Voles living on a pond between North Farm and Whelly Hill but these disappeared many years ago.  

A rodent that has definitely disappeared from the Parish and, indeed, has now died out in the whole of Cleveland and most of County Durham, is the Red Squirrel.   Frank Mitchinson, a former gamekeeper at Wynyard, remembers it being common and unremarkable there in the 1960s.  John Pickard remembered it as present in Tilery Wood in the early 1980s but that seems to be the last time it was seen in the Parish.  Its decline has been largely attributed to the spread of the Grey Squirrel, which carries a disease, squirrel parapox, which is almost always lethal to Red Squirrels.  Grey Squirrels are now found almost everywhere though they don’t seem to be common in the village of Elwick at present.

Rabbits and hares are often thought of as rodents though technically they belong to a different group of mammals.  Both Rabbits and Brown Hares are found all around Elwick and the fields west of the A19 are a particularly good place to see them.

Larger animals are more obvious and the largest of all in Elwick are the deer.  Roe Deer can be seen almost anywhere though usually it is only their tracks (known as slots) that are seen.  Roe deer are ubiquitous in the North East but our other species of deer, the Muntjac is still only found in a few places in the region.  If the number of reports of this deer are a true reflection of its relative abundance, the west of the Parish, particularly the woods around Wynyard, is main centre for this species in the region.  Deer numbers have been increasing nationally for some years though locally they don’t seem to have reached the point where they are damaging woodlands as is the case in other parts of the country.

With mammals, it is often the carnivores that grab the most attention, partly because as predators they can cause damage to livestock and pets but also as predators they are exciting to watch.   Among the weasel family, both Weasels and Stoats have been recorded in the Parish and there was a Ferret loose in a garden in the village recently.  Weasels also come in to the village itself and one was seen attacking a large frog in Elwick Wildlife Garden a few years back.  Its presence was discovered due to the loud screams coming from the frog. 

Mink are thought to be the main cause for the decline of the Water Vole.  This is because the Mink are semi-aquatic and can follow the Water Voles underwater and in to their burrows, so the Water Voles have nowhere to escape from these predators.  Fortunately Mink have not yet been recorded in the Parish but they are likely to have passed through on occasions as one has been seen on the North Burn.  Another semi-aquatic member of the weasel family is the Otter.  Signs of otters have been found on the Close Beck, where it runs through Close Wood but it is likely that they are just passing through as this water course will be too small to support them permanently.  They may be heading up to Crookfoot Reservoir so far there is no evidence that they are doing so.  

The largest member of the weasel family in this country is the badger.  Badgers are very rare east of the A19 but the woods of the former Wynyard estate probably hold the highest concentration of badgers in the whole of the Tees Valley.  Signs of badgers, such as their latrines and footprints can be found along many of the tracks and paths in that area.  

Foxes will often use abandoned badger setts though this is a very adaptable species which is just as much at home living under sheds in urban areas.  Its adaptability means that it can be encountered virtually anywhere in the Parish.  

A carnivore that is perhaps as much myth as mammal is the Elwick Panther.  There have been over 200 sightings of a big cat in the North East since 2000 and probably more of these have occurred in Elwick than in any other Parish in the North East (Its only close competitor for this title being Stocksfield in Northumberland).  Usually the sighting is of a big, black cat, as big, or bigger, than a Labrador, which would fit the description of a Panther but there were two sightings in 2011 of a large sandy-brown cat resembling a Puma.  The best known of these sightings was by Jack Smurthwaite and a couple of children from the village back in 2005.  The sighting was near to the Gill that forms an arm of the Howls.  They were sneaking up to a ridge next to the wood to try and see rabbits but instead a large, black, Labrador-sized cat, got up about 30m in front of them and slinked off in to the wood. What was even more remarkable was that a small black cat, roughly the size of a house cat, got up and followed it.  This was the first and still only one of two, reports of a big cat and cubs in the North East.   Unfortunately, or is that fortunately, there have been no reports of big cats in the Parish or anywhere near Hartlepool for around two years now so perhaps its used all its lives up.

The final group of mammals is probably the most cryptic of all, the bats.  Being nocturnal and highly mobile they are hard to identify in any case but with many of the species looking very similar as well it can be very difficult to determine which species of bat you are looking at.  The Common Pipistrelle is by far the commonest bat species and one that often lives in modern houses.  It is known to live in at least three of the more modern houses in the village.  Other bat species are more usually associated with rural areas and older buildings.  In the far west of the Parish, Crookfoot Reservoir has been designated as a Local Wildlife Site on account of its bat population as at least four species of bat feed over or around the reservoir.  Those that have been recorded there so far are Common Pipistrelle, Nathusius’ Pipistrelle, Noctule and Daubenton’s Bat.  The latter is also known as the “water bat” as it feeds by skimming very low over the water, sometimes gaffing insects off the surface with its large feet.  Other species of bat are also likely to feed there as Brown Long-eared bats have been found roosting around Embleton and Natterer’s bats in abandoned farm houses at Newton Hanzard. 

Elwick Plants

In common with many parts of the Tees Valley and Britain as a whole, the parish of Elwick has lost most of its more specialised flora to the intensification of human activity.  However Elwick would appear to have fared better than most and today it is possibly the most botanically interesting parish in the Tees Valley.  The reasons for this are varied but must owe something to the topography of the parish with its hills, gills and hollows that provide a range of microhabitats and which also make intensive farming a little more difficult in those spots.  Allied to that latter point and equally important in the story of Elwick’s flora, has been the history of agriculture in Elwick and the attitudes of farmers both past and present.  For example some farmers, recognising the importance of areas of their land for nature, have foregone an element of profit from agricultural improvement and maintained the traditional forms of agriculture on these areas.  

Whatever the reasons, the result has been that there are a number of species of plants that have so far been found nowhere else in the Tees Valley and others for which Elwick is one of a handful of places where they can be found in the sub-region.  Curiously a number of these are species that are otherwise found in Upper Teesdale and in the case of Melancholy Thistle, Bird’s Eye Primrose and Globeflower, are characteristic plants of that area

Melancholy Thistle (Cirsium heterophyllum)  So-called because its heads hang downward initially, this thornless thistle with silvery undersides to its leaves was once used to treat depression (Melancholia ).  It is a characteristic plant of Upper Teesdale butn the lower Tees Valley there is just the one plant by the roadside at Crookfoot.

Bird’s Eye Primrose (Primula farinosa) – A purplish Primula with its flowers on long stalks it is characteristic of damp, open grassland.  It has only ever been found at one place in Cleveland, Beacon Hill Marsh.  Unfortunately it appears that it is now extinct there as it hasn’t been seen in the past decade.

Globeflower (Trollius europeaus) – This plant was presumed extinct in the Tees Valley until a small colony was discovered in Brierley Wood in Stockton about 10 years ago.  Seed from these plants was used to grow young plants that were introduced into West Carr Plantation along the Brierley Beck.  It was later found to be present at Crookfoot Wood, where it is likely that it had been introduced some years ago, though it is also present just over the border in Embleton.

Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) – This is an unusual plant in that it is parasitic on the roots of trees.  Because it relies on other plants for its nutrition it doesn’t photosynthesise and its leaves are small, colourless and grow underground with the only parts of the plant to show above ground being the flower stems.  In Hartlepool this plant has only been found to occur in Crookfoot Wood where it was flowering around the damp roots of a willow.

Green Hellebore (Helleborus viridis) - A single plant was found at the edge of Close Wood as part of surveys for the review of Hartlepool’s Local Wildlife Sites in 2009. This seems to be a first record in the Lower Tees Valley although it is also known higher up the River Tees.

Spindle Tree (Euonymous europeaus) -  A few specimens of this colourful tree grow in bush form as part of the hedgerow along the Elwick to Dalton footpath.  The bright pink fruits split open to reveal orange seed capsules and, as might be guessed from their gaudy colour, they are poisonous.

Creeping Willow (Salix repens) – This plant is typically a characteristic species of fixed sand dunes in certain parts of the country but in the Tees Valley there are just a few plants and it is known from just four places; South Gare; Eston Moor; Birk Brow on the North York Moors, and Pawton Gill.

Adder’s Tongue Fern (Ophioglossum vulgatum). This inconspicuous plant is usually an indicator of old meadows.  It has previously only been found locally at Scaling Dam;Seaton Common and a few plants on Darlington Back Lane at Stockton.  A large, new colony was growing in a level damp area of sheep-grazed pasture, at High Stotfold in 2009 with a smaller colony in the old drover’s road that leads north from there.

Bog Bean  (Menyanthes trifoliata) As its name suggests this water plant has three leaves.  It has been found at North Burn Marsh and Craddon Bank but is otherwise absent in the Tees Valley, north of the Tees.  

Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) – Sometimes known as bog violet because of its small, purple flowers, this is no relation to the true violets.  Instead it is a carnivorous plant whose yellowish leaves have a sticky covering that traps insects.  Like Bird’s Eye Primrose it was found at Beacon Hill but hasn’t been seen there for over a decade and also appears to have gone from its other Elwick site, Pawton Hill Gill.  

Purple Loosetrife (Lythrum salicaria)- A tall, attractive plant which is commonly grown in garden ponds but it only occurs naturally in three places in Cleveland, one of which is Black Wood Marsh.

Marsh Valerian (Valeriana dioica) – This plant was once known from just four localities in the Tees Valley but it is now known that the marshes around Elwick are well stocked with it.

Brookweed (Samolus valerandi) – In 1774 this was described as plentiful in marshy places between Hartlepool and Eden Dene.  In this century is was known from only one place between the Tees and the Tyne, Blackhall Rocks, until  it turned up in a small wet flush within a sheep and cow grazed pasture near Close Beck in 2009.

Blunt-flowered Rush (Juncus subnodulosus)  - This is a rare plant in the North East and was not even mentioned in the list of Cleveland plants in the 1994 publication “A Guide to the Wild Flowers of Cleveland”.  It has since been found at both Gunnersvale Marsh and North Burn Marsh as part of a fen survey led by the Wildflower Ark.  

Tufted Sedge (Carex elata)- This sedge,which has been classified on the Durham Rare Plant Register as being of County importance, has been recorded at Black Wood Marsh, High Stotfold and Elwick Hall.

Heath Dog Violet (Viola canina) – No sites were known for this species in the historical county of Durham at the time of the publication of “The Flora and Vegetation of County Durham” in the 1980s.  It has now been found at a small number of sites including Sunderland Lodge Wood.

Marsh Cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris) – This relative of the strawberry is unusual in having magenta-coloured flowers rather than the yellow or white flowers of its relatives.  Until recently it was only known locally from Hart Bog SSSI but it has now also been found in Black Wood Marsh.

Shoreweed (Litorella uniflora) – A rare plant, but only because its habitat, shallow margins of large water bodies is rare.  This relative of the plantains can be found around the margins of  Crookfoot Reservoir

Marsh Woundwort  (Stachys palustris) – Despite its name this plant will grow happily in grassland.  Although common elsewhere in the UK, it is very rare on Teesside.  Its only Hartlepool colony is in the road verge just to the east of the village.

Heather (Calluna vulgaris) – Although by no means a rare plant its presence outside of moorland is very unusual as the nearest lowland heath is at Waldridge Fell near Chester le Street.  The odd plant of Heather is found at Pawton Hill Gill.  There is also the odd plant at the northern end of Wynyard Woodland Park although there aren’t any details to say whether or not they are in the Hartlepool section of those woods or just outside.  At one time, Red Gap Moor was heathland and presumably Heather was known there as well.

Elwick Local Wildlife Sites

Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) are areas that have been designated for their nature conservation interest because they meet particular criteria that have been decided locally by the Tees Valley Local Nature Partnership.  They do not have the protection of Sites of Special Scientific Interest and, unlike Local Nature Reserves, they don’t have any public access unless otherwise agreed.  Instead their aim is to highlight all of the most significant areas for wildlife in the borough.   One of the roles of the Local Authority is to work with landowners to get as many of these sites into good condition as possible. 

There are a total of 44 Local Wildlife Sites in the borough of Hartlepool and 16, over a third, of these are in the Parish of Elwick.  All of the Elwick LWS are shown on Figure 1 and are listed in Table 1 below with a brief description of why they were designated.

Some other sites were formerly designated for their local nature conservation interest but do not meet the current criteria for Local Wildlife Site designation.  Of these, Crookfoot Wood and Cow Pasture Wood are still of considerable interest both for their history and their wildlife.  In addition a disused plot in Greenleas has been managed for nature for over a decade by George Howe and is known informally as Elwick Wildlife Garden.  A brief description of each of these three sites is given in Table 2. 

Table 1  Elwick Local Wildlife Sites

Tilery Gill	A mixture of habitats in two arms of Craddon Beck.  Much of it has now become rank and lost the interest features for which it was originally designated.  The only part that currently qualifies as a LWS is the north- west arm which has still has some species-rich grassland and marsh
Craddon Bank	This LWS was originally a species-rich neutral grassland on the west facing slope with a diverse wetland flora in the low lying area beside Craddon Beck.  However the grassland will now have largely been lost due to encroachment by Gorse.  Although the Craddon Beck at this point isn’t ideal habitat for them, Water Voles were recorded consistently here in low numbers up to 2009, the last time the beck was surveyed.
Elwick Hall Grassland	Most of the field surrounding Elwick Fish Ponds is semi-improved grassland on ridge and furrow.   A small area of species-rich grassland is present on two islands within the old fishponds (Scheduled Ancient Monument) and on one of the steep sides of the pond.  A larger unimproved grassland area is on the steep slope next to beck to the east.
Char Beck Grassland	A small section of species-rich grassland on an embankment overlooking the Char Beck. Water Vole have been recorded in the Char Beck over a period of years up to 2009 but the population is very small as there is very little suitable habitat.
The Howls	This is an Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland in a steep valley where three becks converge.  The north-west arm of the woodland is in Elwick Parish.
Beacon Hill Marsh	This a damp base-rich flush on the lower slopes of the north face of Beacon Hill. The water appears to stem from a spring about two-thirds up the hill as above that the habitat is acid-grassland.  Described in Ian Lawrence’s “A Guide to the Wild Flowers of Cleveland” as “the most interesting conglomeration of plants in the County” on account of the variety of locally rare plants found there.  Unfortunately two of the most distinctive of these, Butterwort and Bird’s-eye Primrose have not been found in the past decade and are presumed extinct. Beacon Hill itself is the highest point in the parish at 134m above sea level.
Pawton Hill Gill	This is a small gill with sloping herb-rich sides, wet flushes and some scrub.  It has been traditionally managed with light grazing and no artificial fertilisers for generations.  It is a very important and species-rich site that would have been designated as a SSSI had it been larger.  It is notable in Hartlepool for Creeping Willow, Spring sedge, Separate–headed Sedge, Heath Grass, Purple Moor-grass, Lady’s-mantles, Burnet-saxifrage, Pepper-saxifrage, Common Butterwort.
Crookfoot Reservoir	The reservoir is the largest water body in the north of Cleveland (even allowing that half of it is in County Durham).  It is a former supply reservoir whose water levels hardly vary therefore it doesn’t have the shallow muddy margins and emergent vegetation of more natural water bodies.  The water line is marked by a narrow strip of Shore-weed (Littorella uniflora).  There are usually good numbers of waterbirds though perhaps not as many as might be expected from a water body of this size.  On occasions an Osprey has stopped off here for a few days on its migration.  The reason for the designation of the reservoir as an LWS is actually its bats.  At least four species of bat including Nathusius’ Pipistrelle and Noctule have been recorded here.
Amerston Gill	This is a mixed woodland in the deep valley of Amerston Beck.  Although not ancient woodland (it wasn’t recorded as woodland on the 1860 O/S map) it has a good variety of woodland plants and bryophytes.
High Stotfold Gill	This is a small area of species-rich grassland on steep slopes either side of a tributary of Claxton Beck.
Black Wood Marsh	This is a small (0.5ha) marsh dominated by Meadowsweet and rushes with small populations of Yellow Loosetrife, Marsh Cinquefoil and Tufted Sedge.  It is one of only three sites in Cleveland with naturally occurring Purple Loosetrife (Lythrum salicaria).  The marsh was gradually drying out and in danger of reverting to grass and scrub but the heavy rains of 2012 re-flooded it.
Gunnersvale Marsh	This is a fairly large marsh in a hollow, surrounded by arable land.  The vegetation is dominated by Sharp-flowered Rush though there is a reasonable diversity of other wetland plants.
North Burn Marsh	A large marshy area in the valley bottom at base of scrub covered slope. Flag Iris and Hard Rush are the dominant species but it also contains Bog Bean which is rare in Cleveland.  The marshy area is said to have expanded in recent years and the site boundary is drawn to encompass other wet flushes and adjacent grassland to incorporate the possible water catchment area.
Close Wood complex	This LWS encompasses almost all of the woodland in the borough of Hartlepool that is south of Embleton and north of the A689.  It is mainly plantation on an ancient woodland site (PAWS) but some of it is still classed as Ancient Semi-Natural Woodland with a few peripheral sections apparently of more recent origin.  Owing to the dense plantation that is currently present, the typical ground flora of ancient woodlands is restricted to certain areas of these woods. This was at one time the only site in Cleveland for breeding Common Buzzard and both Goshawk and Honey Buzzard are suspected to have bred here in recent years. Another interest feature for which these woods are designated as an LWS is the White Letter Hairstreak butterfly, which has become rare following the decline of Elm, its foodplant.
High Newton Hanzard meadow	An area of unimproved grassland on ridge and furrow including the verges of the track up to High Newton Hanzard.  The grassland includes a few species of waxcap fungi.
West Carr Plantation	Approx 6ha of wet woodland on both sides of the Brierley Beck though with conifer plantation around its margins. The canopy includes a high proportion of Grey Alder rather than Common Alder but otherwise the flora is typical of wet woodland plant communities.  This is one of the sites where Globeflower has been introduced.

Table 2 Other Sites of Nature Conservation Interest in Elwick

Crookfoot Wood	This small wood started life as a garden into which a wide variety of plants were introduced.  Some of these were unusual native species and of these Globeflower still exists but the rarest plant by far in this wood disappeared a few years ago.   The many exotic trees that were planted in the wood have now matured and grown to the extent that they have shaded out many of the interesting low-growing plants.  Among the tree species is the only mature Sequioa in Hartlepool and the only examples of Monterey Pine.
Cow Pasture Wood	This wood is predominantly composed of Birch trees with an open understorey on fairly damp ridge and furrow.  It doesn’t have the ancient trees of traditional wood pasture, nevertheless it is managed by low intensity grazing as is the case with traditional wood pasture.  Given its long history as a grazed wood, the extent of the damper areas and the presence of reasonable quantities of dead wood it is likely to be quite important for invertebrates.
Elwick Wildlife Garden	This disused building plot has been managed to display a variety of habitats including two raised beds that have been covered with a dressing of dolomite to create suitable conditions for a wildflower meadow.  Several areas of the garden have become too rank over the years due to too much topsoil and parts of the garden are now due for a make-over.