Wild Flower Walks of Upper Teesdale - Christopher and Gayle Lowe
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Children begin project to restore field to former glory
Jul 28, 2010
A GROUP of green-fingered children dressed in cagoules and wellies took the first steps towards restoring a Barnard Castle hay meadow to its former glory last week.
Pupils from St Mary’s Primary School, Barnard Castle, joined forces with Neil Diment, a hay time officer from the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to begin the project, which aims to turn a field from the Demesnes into a flowering meadow.
Known locally as Mr Hayrake, Mr Diment worked alongside pupils from Years 3 and 4 to help them understand the importance of the project, which was initiated by Barnard Castle town councillor and local farmer, Roger Peat.
It is hoped that the scheme will return the area of the upper Demesnes, near to the rugby ground, into a habitat where both flora and fauna will once again reign supreme.
To kick-start the project the children went to the Demesnes, armed with clipboards and plants, to carry out the first stages.
Mr Diment said: “We want to see what plants are already there so we will be looking to find anything that could still be growing there.”
As well as looking for existing species, which would have flourished in the meadow back in the 1950s, the children were also given the task of returning a plant species that has disappeared from the area over recent years.
Grown by teacher Catherine Ryan, who has a smallholding at Boldron, children got to grips with the lady’s mantle plant.
Mr Diment said: “We have to be careful this is the right type of lady’s mantle because we don’t want to introduce something that wouldn’t have originally been there.
“But we have spoken to Margret Bradshaw, our local botanist, and she said it was the one that would have grown there, so we have the go-ahead from the expert.”
Pupil Thomas Foreman, 9, said: “We are at the Demesnes to have a look and see what plants are still around form years ago. And then we have to takes notes of what we find as they could be very rare.”
Classmate Davey Storey said: “We are looking for some flowers under the grass that’s on the meadow – it’s fun and educational.”
Mr Diment said the project could potentially take a lifetime but he hopes that within ten years the meadow could once again be brimming with species that are native to the area.