Watercress Fields has formal football pitches and a play area as well as areas for informal recreation. It is an important site linking areas in the south of Ashford to the town centre and other parts of the Green Corridor. The river has a natural profile with many meanders, and wide margins of vegetation that support riverside species such as cuckoo flower and alder (some of the alders have succumbed to a disease – however dead wood is a good habitat for invertebrates). The river itself supports water voles, having sufficient food resources and bankside cover. The rest of the park has an open character that is interspersed with woodland gardens and areas of long grass that are important habitats for bird species and invertebrates. In the past it is thought that watercress may have been grown on the site. Further along the river at Leacon Road there are some riverside sculptures of aquatic wildlife and an old fording point that once linked this area with Beaver Lane.

Facilities

Play equipment.
Open space for informal games.
Sports pitches.

Access Information

Gradient: Flat.

Surfaces: 
Tarmac surfaced dual footpath/cyclepath - Stour Valley Walk.

Resting places: Picnic benches by the riverside.

Links:
To Singleton Lake - follow Stour Valley Walk west, across Brookfield Road.
To Victoria Park - follow the Stour Valley Walk west or take the path past the play area, along the edge of the wood and up the gentle slope into the park.