‘The messy limbo that is neither town nor country’

Woodland, parkland, marsh and mountain all have their protectors. But who will stand up for our unloved, wildlife-rich in-between spaces?

A whitethroat launches into the sky to deliver his scratchy song, before parachuting down to his hidden nest along the banks of a canal. A cluster of marsh orchids push their way through the surface of a disused tennis court in the shadow of Newcastle United's football stadium. And the walls and gravestones of a rain-lashed Cornish churchyard are encrusted with layers of lichens.

At first sight, these very different places do not seem to have all that much in common. Yet like roadside verges and railway lines, golf courses and military ranges, they were all originally designed for us, but have since become havens for wildlife. That's because, unlike the intensively farmed wider countryside, they are not being regularly sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, but mostly left to their own devices.