There can be few sensory delights in our countryside to match a meadow in full bloom – buzzing with bees and butterflies and with birds singing overhead.
Whilst full of wildflowers, such meadows are not truly ‘wild’. Traditional hay meadows are the result of man’s hand on the land, harnessing nature to feed livestock and inadvertently creating a valuable, yet vanishingly rare wildlife habitat.
Allowing naturally occurring grasses and flowers to grow tall through spring and summer to produce hay to be dried in the sun to sustain animals over winter provides grass and flower the opportunity to set seed. Annual cutting and grazing helps ensure that delicate species are not crowded out by more robust species such as nettle and dock, and the diverse range of delicate grasses including cock’s foot and flowers such as hay rattle and oxeye daisy provides great nutrition to keep livestock healthy.
This amazing system helped create a productive, yet beautiful and biodiverse patchwork of colourful meadows framed with hedgerows also teeming with wildlife. Sadly, the switch from hay to silage and the introduction of larger modern breeds has led to the loss of 97% of our magical meadows over the past 100 years. This loss hasn’t just been bad news for wildflowers but for an array of creatures from pollinators such as bees to birds such as the skylark.
In the 1980s Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust safeguarded the future of several remaining fragments of meadow habitat, creating nature reserves including Ashton’s Meadow near Retford and Eakring Meadows in the heart of the county. The purchase of Ashton’s Meadow reminded us of just how fragile the fate of these remaining wildflower meadows had become.
The Trust only became aware of the meadow’s existence through a chance conversation between a pupil and teacher at a north Notts school. The teacher was Eirlys Gilbert, an inspirational and influential figure in the early days of the Trust, and once aware of the meadow where flowers including cowslips still thrived, we sprang into action to secure it for future generations. Ashton’s Meadow has subsequently acted as a seedbank for the establishment of the Coronation Meadow at Shireoaks and other grasslands across the county.
As the number of meadows in our care grew, it became clear that these traditional habitats, created and nurtured by generations of farmers, needed a more traditional form of management. This became possible in 1999 when we established our ‘flying flock’ of Hebridean sheep. 25 years on, our trailblazing nature grazing programme has gone from strength to strength and we now have hundreds of sheep plus over 70 cows helping restore and sustain meadows, other grassland and heathland habitat across Nottinghamshire.
Whilst at their charming peak in spring and summer, meadows provide a year-round haven for wildlife – supporting ground nesting birds such as the skylark and birds of prey including beautiful barn owls.
Get involved
Meadows flowers including oxeye daisy and bird’s foot trefoil are still in bloom, providing nectar for threatened pollinators and skylarks may still be heard singing overhead. You can also create your own ‘mini meadow’ by sowing seeds this autumn. You can also help support the work of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust to protect, sustain and restore precious wildflower meadows by visiting www.nottinghamshirewildlife.org.
Image: Burnett Moths, Rob Atkinson