backConservation Partnerships

Common spotted orchids in grassland near Trellech. Photo: AONB unit Parish Grasslands

Partners

  • Parish Grasslands Project
  • Monmouthshire Meadows Group

With funding from the Sustainable Development Fund and Your Heritage, a Heritage Lottery Fund grant scheme

A Parish Grasslands Project covering Hewelsfield, St Briavels and Brockweir has brought together local people who own and want to manage and maintain their flowery fields. This community network of residents, local farmers and smallholders has been co-operating since June 2001, carrying out a field-by-field survey, sharing knowledge and advice and helping field owners enter the Countryside Stewardship Scheme.

Members have collected a wealth of information about the rich plant life in their fields. Botanical finds have included Dyers' Greenweed, which looks like miniature broom, with dense clusters of yellow, pea-like flowers on short stubby growth. Back in the 1920s this was not uncommon locally in rough meadows, but is now rare.

On the other side of the Wye from the Parish Grasslands Project, the Monmouthshire Meadows Group has a similar role. Now the two organisations have teamed up to help each other manage their small areas of grassland.

Both groups have been able to obtain funding from the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) for the purchase of equipment and, in Monmouthshire, Exmoor ponies to graze some of the meadows. Some of the SDF funding has been been matched by an award from Your Heritage, a Heritage Lottery Fund grant scheme. The groups are using the money to fund a machinery ring and new equipment design ed for steep slopes and small fields. Some is being used to interpret the wildlife and landscape value of the area, which will benefit visitors and residents alike.

© 2004 Design & Development