Natural England

Following a successful bid to Natural England, the famous Harnham Water Meadows opposite Salisbury Cathedral have recently secured new funding for environmental restoration over a 10-year period.

These water meadows are unique and comprise a historic landscape immortalised in John Constable’s paintings of Salisbury Cathedral. The grant which comes from a Higher Level Stewardship Scheme will enable important landscape restoration work to take place on the site. This will provide improved habitats for a range of important plant species including sedges and flowering herbs such as marsh marigold, monkey flower and early marsh orchid, and for bird species including lapwing, snipe and redwing.

The Harnham Water Meadows Trust’s Education and Development Officer, Dr Hadrian Cook is delighted:
‘This funding ensures the maintenance and restoration of one of England’s most historic landscapes, We can now improve an area for nature conservation at the heart of Salisbury as well as expand our mission to interpret this important area for the public. I look forward to showing schools, colleges and community groups around the restored meadows so that people may better appreciate landscape and agriculture in the heyday of the Wessex water meadows’.

Dr Kathy Stearne from Natural England comments:
Preserving these meadows has been an important conservation issue for some years as the meadows form the backdrop to the cathedral with the town path through the middle. Thousands of visitors to the city enjoy the landscape and this grant aid will give the Harnham Water Meadows Trust the stability to plan and manage the grazing and to restore landscape features such as the complex ditching systems with its associated hatches and willows. This in turn will enhance the natural biodiversity of the site.

The future will entail close co-operation and advice from experts to support the Harnham Water Meadows Trust, enabling the character of this iconic part of the English countryside to be preserved.

Notes to editors:

1. Higher Level Stewardship is the highest tier of Defra’s new Environmental Stewardship Schemes. It aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority areas, such as Salisbury’s complex water meadow environment.

2. The Harnham Water Meadows Trust received support in its funding application from Natural England, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and land agents Strutt and Parker.

3. Guided visits of the watermeadows by groups such as schools, further and higher education groups, community and conservation organisations can be arranged through the Trust’s Education and Development Officer.

For further information contact: Hadrian Cook
Telephone: 07947 037358
Email: hadrian@salisburywatermeadows.org.uk

For further information about Natural England visit: www.naturalengland.org.uk