Plan to restore 100 wildflower meadows is fit for a King

Posted 03/05/2023

A plan to restore 100 wildflower meadows at sites across the UK to celebrate the King’s Coronation next Monday will be the crowning glory to an historic day.

That’s the view of Midlands environment expert Ron Fox who said it would be a fitting and lasting tribute to Charles III’s love of the natural world and his commitment over decades of drawing attention to climate change.

English Heritage has promised to restore the country’s lost flower-rich grasslands at 43 castles and forts, 22 abbeys and priories, 10 historic houses and prehistoric stone circle sites which will help reduce Britain’s carbon emissions.

Ron said wildflowers absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert the gas and sunlight into energy. During this process, the CO2 is absorbed by the plant and transformed into organic matter.

Sites selected include Stonehenge, the Jewel Tower in London and Queen Victoria’s former house Osborne on the Isle of Wight and Down House, the former home of Charles Darwin in Kent.

Seventy-five of the meadows will be brand new and 25 are existing ones which will be developed.

The project comes as 97 per cent of the UK’s grasslands have disappeared since the 1930s, with many remaining fragments left unprotected.

Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s chief executive, said: “We’re creating more natural spaces at the heart of our historic properties, ensuring that wildflowers and wildlife can flourish there once again, and helping our visitors to step back and experience something with which the sites’ former occupants would have been familiar.”

Plantlife, a charity dedicated to saving wild plants and fungi, is partnering with English Heritage on the initiative to restore the flower-rich grasslands, which were wiped out by industrialisation and modern farming, to their former glory over the next ten years.

“I think it is a brilliant project which will have a great effect on our countryside and environment for many decades to come,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park.

The meadows are at:

London:

Combe Conduit; Eltham Palace and Gardens; Harmondsworth Barn; Jewel Tower; Kenwood; London Wall; Marble Hill.

West Midlands:

Boscobel and White Ladies Priory (Shropshire); Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden (Warwickshire); Longtown Castle (Herefordshire); Moreton Corbet (Shropshire); Rotherwas Chapel (Herefordshire); Wenlock Priory (Shropshire); Witley Court and Gardens (Worcestershire); Wroxeter (Shropshire).

East of England:

Berkhamsted Castle (Hertfordshire); Castle Acre Priory and Castle (Norfolk); Denny Abbey and the Farmland Museum (Cambridgeshire); Framlingham Castle (Suffolk); Grimes Graves (Norfolk); Hadleigh Castle (Essex); Houghton House (Bedfordshire); Isleham Priory Church (Cambridgeshire); Leiston Abbey (Suffolk); Thetford Warren Lodge (Norfolk); Tilbury Fort (Essex); Wrest Park (Bedfordshire).

East Midlands:

Bolingbroke Castle (Lincolnshire); Chichele College (Northamptonshire); Mattersey Priory (Nottinghamshire); Peveril Castle (Derbyshire); Sibsey Trader Mill (Lincolnshire); Sutton Scarsdale Hall (Derbyshire).

North West:

Beeston Castle (Cheshire); Brougham Castle (Cumbria); Carlisle Castle (Cumbria); Furness Abbey (Cumbria); Piel Castle (Cumbria); Sawley Abbey (Lancashire).

North East:

Barnard Castle (Durham); Berwick-upon-Tweed Castle and Ramparts (Northumberland); Brodsworth Hall (South Yorkshire); Dunstanburgh Castle (Northumberland); Easby Abbey (North Yorkshire); Etal Castle (Northumberland); Gisborough Priory (North Yorkshire); Heddon-on-theWall, Hadrian’s Wall (Northumberland); Helmsley Castle (North Yorkshire); Hylton Castle (Sunderland/Tyne and Wear); Monk Bretton Priory (South Yorkshire); Mount Grace Priory (North Yorkshire); Norham Castle (Northumberland); Prudhoe Castle (Northumberland); Richmond Castle (North Yorkshire); Rievaulx Abbey (North Yorkshire); Spofforth Castle (North Yorkshire); Thornborough Henges (North Yorkshire); Wharram Percy (North Yorkshire); Whitby Abbey (Yorkshire).

South East:

Battle Abbey (East Sussex); Bayham Old Abbey (Kent); Carisbrook Castle (Isle of Wight); Dover Castle (Kent); Down House (Kent); Flowerdown Barrows (Hampshire); Fort Brockhurst (Hampshire); Netley Abbey (Hampshire); Osborne (Isle of Wight); Pevensey Castle (East Sussex); Portchester Castle (Hampshire); Reculver Towers and Roman Fort (Kent); Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre (Kent); Royal Garrison Church (Hampshire); Silchester Roman City Walls and Amphitheatre (Hampshire); Titchfield Abbey (Hampshire); Walmer Castle and Gardens (Kent); Waverley Abbey (Surrey).

South West:

Bant’s Carn (Isles of Scilly); Blackbury Camp (Devon); Bratton Camp and White Horse (Wiltshire); Chysauster Ancient Village (Cornwall); Farleigh Hungerford Castle (Somerset); Garrison Walls (Isles of Scilly); Hailes Abbey (Gloucestershire); Harry’s Walls (Isles of Scilly); Knowlton Church and Earthworks (Dorset); Launceston Castle (Cornwall); Maiden Castle (Dorset); Muchelney Abbey (Somerset); Okehampton Castle (Devon); Old Sarum (Wiltshire); Pendennis Castle (Cornwall); Restormel Castle (Cornwall); Sherborne Old Castle (Dorset); Silbury Hill (Wiltshire); St Mary’s, Kempley Churchyard (Gloucestershire); St Mawes Castle (Cornwall); Stonehenge (Wiltshire); Tintagel Castle (Cornwall); Totnes Castle (Devon); Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrows (Dorset); Woodhenge (Wiltshire).

If you want any advice on green solutions contact Ron on 0845 474 6641.

Caption: By Royal Appointment – Beeston Castle in Cheshire is one of the sites selected to have its wildflower meadow restored to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III. Picture supplied by English Heritage.