Loughborough Big Meadow covers 35.3 ha and is owned by the Wildlife Trust and is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The whole meadow is subject to complex commoner's rights dating back to at least 1762 and is one of the few Lammas meadows left in England. Located on alluvium with a clayey loam soil subject to periodic flooding, the reserve contains a flora including great burnet, meadow saxifrage, yellow rattle, common birds-foot-trefoil and peppersaxifrage, many of them growing in profusion. The meadows are the only known site in the county today for the nationally scarce narrow-leaved water-dropwort. Breeding birds of the river margins include sedge warbler, whitethroat and reed bunting, while skylark breeds on the meadow. Redshank have bred in the past, but there are no recent records of this species.