Hawley Meadows
Blackwater and Hawley Town Council is a contributor to the Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership. The general aims for the Valley partnership are as follows:
- Maintenance of the Valley as an open gap with enhanced landscape
- Wildlife conservation
- Improved quality of the River Blackwater
- Recreation and access as the major use of the Valley
- Co-ordination of recreation and conservation initiatives
- Use of the Valley for sustainable transport links
Hawley Meadows, an important river floodplain site with a wet grassland habitat supporting a wide range of wildlife, straddles the border between Surrey and Hampshire. It is one of the few sites in the Valley that shows what the landscape may have been like over 100 years ago. The site serves as a natural flood defence with the fields acting as a reservoir after heavy rainfall. Today its role as a floodplain meadow is even more important as it helps prevent the A331 and surrounding towns from flooding.