St Nicholas Fields nature reserve, just a few minutes' walk from Walmgate Bar, is now a maturing open space, rescued in the late 1980s from an earlier life as a council tip. In its time it has seen a 12th century hospital and church, Civil War fighting and a 19th century brickworks. The latter operated until the 1950s, providing bricks for the construction of Tang Hall estate. Twenty species of butterfly have been recorded here and the reserve also attracts nesting birds, including kingfisher and siskin.
