King’s Coronation to include creation of 100 meadows
Four of the sites are in Dorset
100 meadows across 100 historical UK sites are to be created or enhanced as part of the Kings Coronation celebrations, including four in Dorset.
Sites at Maiden Castle at Dorchester, Winterbourne Poor at Winterbourne Abbas, Knowlton Church and Earthworks at Cranborne and Sherborne Old Castle are part of this countrywide project by English Heritage and Salisbury based conservation charity Plantlife.
Plantlife CEO Ian Dunn said the project aims to produce 100 species rich grasslands over the next decade, with the King’s love of grassland areas making the site selection process easier: “We know that the king has a great love of both historic sites, but also of meadows. And that really predetermined the selection of the sites.”
There are multiple benefits to be gained from the restoration of grassland areas, with 97% of such areas having been lost to agriculture, development, and infrastructure over the last century.
The obvious benefit is environmental with increased permanent carbon capture, but there are also physical and mental benefits, as Dunn explained:
“There's been many, many studies that are connecting or reconnecting with nature is not only good for your physical world being, but it's good for your mental well-being. Your heart pressure drops calm down, you relax. I would, I would encourage everybody who can, even if it's a small community space nearby.
“Just to go outside and when you can and where you can just sit and be still and watch and listen around you. And it is amazing, the sounds you hear and it's amazing what you see.”
The benefits are not limited to us and our way of life, as Dunn told us: “By having really species rich meadows across England, it will increase the number of pollinators. So, the bumblebees, the butterflies, all the invertebrates, all the insect life. And that will support bird life as well.
So, the foundation, the building block of healthy habitats is, the grasslands.”
Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s Chief Executive, said:
“The King’s coronation is a significant moment in history and we wanted to mark it in a meaningful way, in a way that combines two of His Majesty’s passions – nature and heritage. 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 into history and experience something with which the sites’ historic occupants would have been familiar.”
“In a decade’s time, our coronation pledge will be an inspiring legacy of established, restored and new meadows at 100 of our historic sites – big and small – right across England. We hope that it will encourage local communities to get involved and help transform their local heritage sites into flower-rich meadows, which, in turn, will improve the quality and diversity of other grassland in the local area.”