To walk through an 'unimproved' meadow is to realise a birthright has been lost. The dazzling variety of wildflowers that made "the meadows so pleasant and gay", that "blessed the vale with the fragrant hay" are now a thing of the past, remembered only in folk songs.
Unlike pastures (which are generally grazed all year) meadows are grazed only between late summer and early spring to allow for growth of a hay crop. Traditional management encouraged a wealth of wild flowers but since World War II over 97% of lowland meadows have been 'improved' and their biological diversity lost.
In the Vale of Evesham, the most important meadows were the flood meadows occurring on the alluvial soil alongside the river Avon and its tributaries. Flooding enriches the soil with nutrients and warmth, promoting early grass growth and creating a grassland characterised by great burnet and meadow foxtail (MG4). The Avon flood meadows were the base of the agricultural economy that made the Vale famous; now they are almost all destroyed. But at Lower Moor, Great Gore Meadows in Fladbury and Littleton Meadows near Offenham the Trust has bought meadows which are still good enough to restore, and we are working to re-create and preserve the productive, wildlife-rich and beautiful meadows of old.
