Wildflowers have not performed well in 2025 and 2026 despite following advice where possible. So from 2027 we will split the wildflower area into a grass meadow near the entrance where most of the insect hotels are, the rest of the area will be mown as a lawn with an uncut patch on the slope where wildflowers bloomed, in case they return. 

Advice we followed includes having yellow rattle in the seed mix which controls grass growth, watering the meadow in 2026, creating a new area with bare soil, cutting the meadow as advised, leaving flower seeds to fall, clearing cuttings to avoid soil enrichment, removing weeds, modified the harrow to improve it and harrowed the soil before sowing and again to disturb seeds to encourage germination, rolled seeds for good soil contact, and re-seeded every season twice a year.

Despite all this work and effort, we had poor flowering in the last two years and the high amount of work and cost (seeds are expensive) is not justified for the poor results. We made a chart showing when sections of the meadow were seeded, the only successful flowering was on the sloping bank, which could just be due to the thicker soil there.

The main reason wildflowers fail after a few years is because grasses take over and out-compete the flowers, this is why our maintenance plan was adhered to, but we ran out of cornfield annual seeds last year and had to reseed with the original flower and grass mix in some areas, which will have increased the grasses in 2026, but this does not explain the poor results in 2025. Both seasons were extremely dry but we watered in 2026 although it made very little difference.

The wildflower meadow project was created so we could apply for a grant to buy a ride-on mower which we needed for our large areas of grass. The mower is still in regular use cutting all the grass on site, so we achieved our aim and there will be slightly more grass to cut with the new lawn. There are also many other aspects of the wildflower meadow grant which we still benefit from:-

The new shed was part of the project, this replaced an old shipping container to give better views of the site. The shed freed up storage space in the visitor centre allowing us to display more finds and exhibits including things found when making the meadow.

The area was originally full of weeds and soil heaps, so the landscaping has created an attractive outdoor space. The grant included preservation of adjacent areas, so we cleared the trench and tunnels of debris and covered a brick floor with soil to preserve it. We bought insect hotels which are still used by bees and other insects and we made our own from re-used materials. Our picnic bench can be used on the new lawn.

Grass meadow maintenance will involve pulling up weeds, cutting paths, cutting the grass meadow in Autumn and clearing cuttings. The lawn will just need mowing when we cut the rest of the grass on site.

The towed accessories will not get as much use, but will be needed when covering areas of the site with soil and grass for preservation. The roller, harrow and spreader will be needed for this as well as the mower trailer for carrying sacks of grass seed. The trailer gets plenty of use at work parties and the collector is still needed to clear grass cuttings before open days and to clear cuttings from the new grass meadow.

So although the whole meadow will no longer flower, there are still many advantages of the grant which we continue to benefit from, particularly our mower and shed. Poppies and other wildflowers always come up in various places around the site and we often plant cornflowers in our gardens, so we will still have wildflowers on site. If wildflowers return naturally to the slope or meadow we will keep them.

Graham Bartlett

Project Co-ordinator

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