We had fantastic weather and a full house again for our penultimate summer meadow walk at Brookmead and Colwall Village Garden. Lindsay Williams, owner of Brookmead and Trustee of Colwall Orchard Group, kindly led the tour that took us to four fields all restored in 2019 with support from Herefordshire Meadows and funding from Plantlife and the Prince of Wales’… Read more →
Rory Johnson
July Newsletter
Welcome to our July Newsletter. After record-breaking temperatures this June, we have ended the month with some much-needed rain. With the meadows fast setting seed we are looking forward to a month of seed harvesting this July, with 8 donor sites due to be visited and over 60ha of receptor sites being prepped for restoration this year. Herefordshire Meadows have… Read more →
Herefordshire’s Coronation Meadow 10 years on – National Meadows Day walk at Sollers Hope
To celebrate National Meadows Day 2023 Fiona Fyshe gave us a tour of the beautiful meadows at Sollers Hope on Friday 30th June. In 2015 this 3.6ha site at Hurstans received brush harvested seed from Joans Hill Coronation Meadow, a Plantlife nature reserve. The hay meadow now boast a healthy population of Green Winged Orchids as well as many other… Read more →
Bumblebee ID Training Day at Croft Castle
On 27th June Dr Richard Comont from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust led an afternoon of bumblebee identification and survey training, in the beautiful grounds of Croft Castle. Time was spent netting and potting bumble bees on the fields that were restored with the help of Herefordshire Meadows in 2019, and in the walled garden where conditions were more favourable on… Read more →
Open Meadow Event at Eardisley Castle
On June 18th 2023, a one hectare meadow, which forms part of the complex layout of Eardisley Castle, an Historic England scheduled ancient monument layout was opened to the public to raise money for the Hereford Choral Society. The meadow was created in 2020 as part of the Pollinator Meadows Project, with the support of Herefordshire Meadows, Plantlife and… Read more →
Plantlife investigates the success of the Coronation Meadows project 10 years on
Ten years ago, the former Prince of Wales launched Coronation Meadows in 2013 to honour the 60th year of the late Queen’s accession to the throne. In the face of the catastrophic loss of 97% of our wildflower meadows since the 1930s, the plan was to create new and restored meadows using donor seed from remaining fragments of ancient and… Read more →
Surveying with the Floodplain Meadows Partnership
As part of our FiPL Floodplain Meadows Project we have been extremely fortunate to have been able to have two days of survey time in the field with Irina Tatarenko and Emma Rothero from the Floodplain Meadows Partnership. Over the two days we visited four sites which were a mix of recently restored and potential restoration areas. As well as… Read more →
First Summer Meadow Walk at Bromyard Downs and Warren Farm
On the 22nd May twenty nine keen attendees set off across Bromyard Downs and down onto Warren Farm in the early evening sunshine for the first of this year’s Meadow Walks. James Hawkins, Chair of the Bromyard Downs Commoners Association, tenant farmer at Warren Farm and Herefordshire Meadows Chair of Trustees, kindly led the tour through the land he manages,… Read more →
Herefordshire Meadows June Newsletter
Welcome to our June Newsletter. It has been catch-up time for meadows this month after a slow start to spring. On our first meadow walk event of the year at Bromyard Down we were treated to a lovely evening in the sun with far reaching views across to the Malvern Hills, and plenty of emerging flowers to admire and puzzle… Read more →
June Newsletter
Welcome to our June Newsletter. It has been catch-up time for meadows this month after a slow start to spring. On our first meadow walk event of the year at Bromyard Down we were treated to a lovely evening in the sun with far reaching views across to the Malvern Hills, and plenty of emerging flowers to admire and puzzle… Read more →