Grassland Restoration in Action

Sue and David Brown attended a Wildflower and Habitat-Rich Grasslands Day on behalf of Greening Tetbury in July. In this blog, David explores details of the day, including:

• The transformation story of Bannerdown common

• How wildflower seed is harvested

• One farm that’s supporting a wonderful wildlife habitat.

Greening Tetbury was kindly invited to attend this event run by the South Cotswold Fosse Farmer Cluster. This is a group of 70 farms, covering 21,000 Ha of the South Cotswolds and the surrounding landscape, which is dedicated to supporting farmers in sustainably managing their land with a priority on soil health, water, and habitat.

The agenda for the day was:

• Tour of Bannerdown Common to hear about their grasslands restoration project.

• A demonstration of seed collection on the Common from the Glorious Cotswolds Grassland team, showing the importance of hand harvesting wildflower seeds from mature meadows and the techniques for collection

• Drive across to Hall Farm for lunch and an introduction to the farm, followed by a farm walk to hear about the mature wildflower meadow management techniques on a working farm To start our visit to Bannerdown Common, we were given a talk by Rob Kendall (Land Manager for Batheaston Commons) which was both interesting and enlightening.  

A Transformation of Common Land

Bannerdown Common covers an area of around 22 hectares, split between open access common and woodland. The Common has large areas of unimproved species-rich meadow / calcareous grassland, and the woodlands are similarly species rich.

Calcareous grassland is an alkaline, species-rich ecosystem that develops on thin, nutrient-poor soils over chalk or limestone. Maintained by centuries of grazing, these habitats support up to 40 plant species per square metre— including rare orchids and herbs—and are vital for butterflies and other invertebrates.  

Rob talked about the many years of dedicated volunteer work which it had taken to restore the Common from an abandoned area of mainly scrub and bramble, to the truly inspiring and beautiful place it is today – absolutely brimming with wildflowers and an incredible range of insects. Volunteers now continue to actively manage Bannerdown Common, keeping the habitat thriving and ensuring no species is able to dominate.

We were then able to watch the Glorious Cotswolds Grassland team in action harvesting and hand sifting wildflower seeds from the Common.  Anna Field and Tom Harcourt provided some background to the project and an overview of the process.  The seeds are collected from a number of sites around the Cotswolds for use on farms as part of restoration of species-rich grassland. Much of the work of the group is undertaken by volunteers.

Learn more about habitat loss and restoration

Land Restoration at Hill Farm

For the second part of the day we went to Hill Farm where we were given a short presentation over lunch by Lara Spearman and Haydn Jenkins who now run the farm (Lara is the 3rd generation of her family to run the farm). The farm has been managed organically for the past 20 years and has an ancient woodland and a number of fields which have received Natural England’s ‘high designation’ as species-rich, calcareous grassland and meadow. Recent surveys have identified 173 species of plants on the farm.

Lara and Haydn are using around 20 Angus mix cattle to support the managed grazing of the land in order to maintain the wonderful habitat it offers, and are also working to restore and improve other areas of the farm.

Making Impressions Beyond the Farm

The whole day was so inspiring not just in terms of the magnificent work being undertaken by local groups and farmers, but also due to the clear enthusiasm from the farmers attending the event to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and develop and replicate the work they had seen in order to further the aims of the farm cluster