About the reserve

Badgeworth, near Cheltenham, became the first nature reserve in the county when owner Mr. Hedley presented it to the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves in 1933. The pond in the nature reserve is the 'pool' in the name of the lane 'Cold Pool Lane'. 

Badgeworth is an area of grassland with a pond and supports one of just two UK populations of the rare adder’s tongue spearwort Ranunculus ophioglossifolius, known locally as the ‘Badgeworth Buttercup’. The other population is on Inglestone Common in south Gloucestershire. Other plants at Badgeworth include lesser spearwort, common water-crowfoot, narrow-leaved plantain, marsh speedwell, pink water speedwell, fen bedstraw and marsh foxtail.

More than 300 species of beetle have been recorded at this nature reserve, and common frog, great crested, smooth and palmate newts all breed in the pond.

Badgeworth was the first nature reserve to be looked after by the newly-formed Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in 1962.