Characteristics

The fields mostly range from semi-improved neutral grassland/rough pasture, to improved grassland and cultivated arable land. Some are relatively flat, whereas others have undulating gradients as a result of glacial moraines. A few have very wet, almost swamp-like areas, whereas others are far more dry, though this often relates to their topography, with higher mounds escaping the inevitable boggy lower ground. One entirely flat field, however, known as the “Garage Field”, has the hallmarks of a possible ancient small loch – and remains as a marshy field today, full of rushes – and further west from here another flat field, the “West Wards”, is the most boggy of all, with its northern half almost entirely inaccessible without wellington boots, or very wet feet. Wetter fields were drained in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, as agriculture expanded, and have subsequently been ‘rewetted’ by a combination of deliberate reverse drainage, the digging of ponds and scrapes, and beaver activity.

Over in the far east, the “Newton Rough Ground” is unimproved grassland, and fen with a mix of  mature meadow species such as ragged robin and devils bit scabious. We hope these will provide seed source for adjacent improved pastures, as space is made for germination in ‘pig digs’, and we are also proactively sowing suitable, local provenance wildflowers across the improved pastures, including on patches of yellow rattle, sown in 2021 to suppress the dominance of agricultural grasses.