A Worcestershire meadow (c) Steve Bloomfield
It is a little known fact that Worcestershire is the lowland county in England with the highest proportion of its land area still under flower-rich meadows and pastures.
Despite high national losses of this semi-natural, traditionally farmed habitat, due to agricultural improvement and intensification since the Second World War, figures in the county habitat action plan show that Worcestershire retains around 20% of the country’s total of herb-rich meadows on neutral soils - clays and clay-loams.
Our nature reserves include some of the best examples in the UK of traditionally managed lowland hay-meadows. These include The Knapp and Papermill and the Penorchard complex which, at 14 hectares, ranks among the larger continuous tracts of unimproved meadow in the County.
Grassland restoration & management
Old traditional grasslands and ridge & furrow meadows are still under considerable threat from agricultural improvement by use of chemical fertilisers and over-intensive grazing as well as through unfortunate side effects of intensive horse keeping.
We are working closely with partners, including Natural England, and individual landowners to influence land-management through agri-environmental schemes and local initiatives such as our Bow Brook Living Landscape Project.
The overall aim is to foster a balanced pattern of traditional low-intensity pastoral land-use within a modern economically-flourishing countryside.
Further information
For more information you might like to download the following guides or visit the Flora Locale website.
Downloads
| Filename | File size |
|---|---|
| Grasslands & Local Wildlife Sites.pdf | 1.37 MB |
| Grasslands - A Landowner's Guide.pdf | 6.29 MB |