A FLOWER-strewn hillside overlooking the valley made famous by writer Laurie Lee was awarded National Nature Reserve status ahead of its official opening this week.

Rough Bank sits in the Slad Valley in the Cotswolds, a landscape evocatively brought alive in Lee’s 1959 autobiographical novel Cider with Rosie.

It is now home to six species of the blue butterfly family, including the Adonis, Chalk Hill, Small, Holly, Common and Brown Argus.

There are also more than 30 nationally scarce and rare moths and the main area of flower-rich grassland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, boasting a wide range of orchids.

The National Nature Reserve was officially opened on Thursday by Natural England chairman Andrew Sells, who helped Butterfly Conservation acquire the site in 2012.

Over the last two years, access has been improved, fencing and cattle-grazing introduced and a car park built.

Volunteers from the wildlife charity’s Gloucestershire branch have worked tirelessly to encourage its rare moths and butterflies, as well as to create a suitable habitat for the re-introduction of the UK’s rarest butterfly, the Large Blue.

The Large Blue became extinct in the UK in 1979 and is threatened across the world, but painstaking conservation work has led to its re-introduction at a tiny number of sites in southern England.

Dr Martin Warren, chief executive of Butterfly Conservation, said: “The Large Blue is such an iconic butterfly and the programme to reintroduce it to the Cotswolds will help its global survival.

“For Butterfly Conservation to actually have a site of our own where we can contribute to that effort is critical.

“Rough Bank has a whole range of wildlife and other important moth and butterfly species and the new status means we can better protect the reserve and be more eligible for further conservation funding.

“The opening on Thursday was about celebrating that and thanking everyone who has helped us get to where we are now.”