The Wildflower meadows
We have two areas of wildflower meadows. The one alongside the spinney was used to grow wheat and later grass. In the 1970's it was sprayed to control ragwort. Since then we have been encouraging wildflowers to return but the grass still outgrows them. We still have original un-ploughed meadow in the next field, either side of the stream. on the far side of the stream the sward was taken off in the late 1960's to grow the chrysanthemums in. This prevented the grasses from crowding out the wild flowers. It is a valuable ecological resource as so little unimproved lowland meadow survives and it is an official Local Wildlife Site.
The meadows are full of a wide range of wildflowers, many of which are under threat in modern times. In 2017 we introduced Snake's Head Fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris) which seems to be growing successfully.
Marbled White butterfly
on Knapweed
