Barn owl flying low over a field (credit: Danny Green)
Meadows for the future
We marked National Meadows Day 2026 by launching a project aimed at saving Norfolk’s disappearing meadows.
Throughout the project, we'll work with landowners and schools in Norfolk to create new meadows that will offer vital new homes for wildlife and produce seed that will, in the future, be used to make even more meadows.
Since the 1930s it is estimated that the UK has lost a staggering 98.5 per cent of our wildflower meadows. In Norfolk, a county of intensive arable farming, this rate of loss has been particularly heavy, and traditional meadows have effectively disappeared across the county.
The value of meadows
Meadows are a vital part of our natural environment. They create a home for a wide variety of wildlife, including butterflies, bees and other pollinating insects and in turn support mammals and creatures right up the food chain. Insect pollinators are vital for ecosystem health and food security, with 75% of crop species, and over 80% of flowering plant species being dependent on insect pollinators.
Meadows also store and remove carbon from the atmosphere, helping in the fight against climate change, and can help reduce the impacts of flooding, provide hay for livestock, and offer beautiful places for people to enjoy the benefits of time in nature.
This project will also help support the survival of some of the rare plant species found in the unique habitats of the South Norfolk Claylands, including sulphur clover, dyer’s greenweed and spiny restharrow.
What we are doing
Thanks to over £55,000 of generous donations to our 2024 Meadows Appeal we can do research to identify existing meadows in need of restoration, as well as finding places to create new meadows.
NWT staff and volunteers will then work with a variety of owners and managers of land rich in wildflowers to restore them to high-quality meadows, as well as working in partnership to create new meadows on suitable land.
Each newly restored and created meadow will not only help plants and animals thrive; they will also produce a vital supply of new seeds to create future meadows elsewhere around the county.
We aim to create or restore at least five hectares of meadow a year during the three years of the project – with every 1 hectare of meadow producing seed to create 2-3 hectares of new meadow in the future!
Returning meadows to their rightful place, at the heart of our countryside, is not only morally the right thing to do - and a beautiful addition to our lives - but essential if we want to ensure future generations enjoy living in a healthy and vibrant county.
Girl with binoculars in meadow (credit: Jon Hawkins)
Seeds of hope
Part of the project will involve ten schools within the Diocese of Norwich, who will create thriving meadows in their school grounds.
School pupils will be involved every step along the way, from surveying the sites, to planting the seeds and helping manage the newly emerging meadows.
Seed for the new school meadows is generously funded by Nigel and Jenny Ford.
