The Nature Reserve is a secluded piece of countryside, a haven for wildlife surrounded by houses and gardens. It is located within Sneyd Park, Stoke Bishop , Bristol, within three miles of the city centre. The land is public open space, owned by Bristol City Council.
The Friends of Old Sneed Park Nature Reserve (FOSPNR) was established in 1995, with the aim of managing Old Sneed Park Nature Reserve and promoting education about wildlife and conservation.
The Friends organize conservation work, talks, guided walks, and activities for children.
A major event for the Nature Reserve in 2007-2008 has been the successful application for Heritage Lottery funding to enable essential work to be carried out to restore the lake.
This will involve repairing the leaks in the dam and removing the accumulated silt.
Most of the land in the reserve was originally deer park, which has never been ploughed or sprayed with herbicides. This makes it valuable for wildlife as it contains older types of grasses and many wild flowers. There are a number of different habitats close together - hay meadows, woodland, scrubland edge and a lake.
The soil in the lower field is grey as a result of it being river mud. The soils in the rest of the reserve are reddish, the colour of the bedrock which is Old Red sandstone, some 370 million years old.
