Monad of the Month - SE8647 - Londesborough, Market Weighton
Welcome to Monad of the Month! This series will feature a monad (1km) grid square within the North and East Yorkshire area where we’re lacking records in our database. We’ve chosen grid squares that lack records but also contain interesting or valuable habitats or (locally or nationally/internationally) designated sites, and that are close to large towns, cities, or transport links where possible, to make them accessible, should you wish to visit and do some recording!
Our Monad of the Month for May 2026 is SE8647, located about 5km north of Market Weighton.
SE8647 is actually located around 1.5km north of the village of Londesborough and close to Market Weighton. The most interesting feature within this monad is woodland that makes up part of Londesborough Park, a 17th century garden that includes woodland and parkland. Together, this is a 200ha site on the south-west edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. The main entrance to the site is from the by-road between Londesborough and Market Weighton. Whilst neighbouring monads have a good number of records (for example, 274 in the monad directly below) we only hold one Hymenoptera record within SE8647. Londesborough Park is also on the Local Wildlife Site register, though the site has Deleted status, which can be given for a number of reasons including merging with another LWS, overlap with a statutory designated site, or the site no longer meeting the robust LWS guidelines to class as a designated site. Importantly, just because a site has not met the high criteria for designation as a LWS it does not mean that it has no added value for wildlife. The LWS assessment is usually based on a botanical survey of the habitat and does rarely includes surveys for other taxa, including protected species, which the site may support. It may also be important for connectivity or as part of a wider habitat network. It may be possible to enhance the value of the site for wildlife with certain types of management, which could bring the site up to the standard required for designation as a LWS.
Londesborough Park is a publicly accessible site and has pathways throughout, but please be sure to check less-visited parts of the site for access and stick to designated areas if indicated.
Whilst there are many sources of biological records, including on the likes of NBN Atlas and recording platforms like iRecord, as well as through organisations like BTO or BSBI, it should be noted that LERCs do not always have access to these records for local decision making, or cannot use them due to incorrect licensing, poor resolution, lack of verification, or other reasons. This series is intended to highlight areas where we have fewer records, forming gaps in our coverage. If you have records - particularly linked to specific sites or species groups - that we may not have access to, we’d love to hear from you!