Natural England - Mottey Meadows: what makes it special?

Mottey Meadows: what makes it special?

Mottey Meadows lie in the broad valley of the Motteymeadows brook.

Peaty soils overly sand and gravel deposits, resulting in an area that is wet in winter, but dries out rapidly in spring. This provides ideal conditions for the growth and harvesting of hay, and the Wheaton Aston area was famous for its excellent hay quality.

Snakes Head Fritillary

This system is also ideal for the rare and delicate member of the lily family, the snake's-head fritillary; here it is at its most northerly location in England where it grows as a truly wild plant. Locally the snake's-head fritillary is known as the “folfalarum” or “folfar” this name is not known to be used anywhere outside of the village of Wheaton Aston.

Hay Meadow Flowers

By mid June the meadows are at their best with a sea of great burnet, ragged robin, knapweed and other hay meadow specialists such as pepper saxifrage, meadow rue, meadow thistle and saw wort. This type of display of hay meadow flowers would have been quite common a century ago however due to agricultural improvements to 90% of England floodplain meadows have disappeared.

Mottey Meadows is now one of only a handful of sites with this type of wildflower assemblage with such a great diversity of plants. As one of the five most important sites for floodplain meadows in the UK, Mottey Meadows have been designated as a Special Area for Conservation under European Legislation.

The history of agriculture

The meadows are managed through a traditional hay cut (historically done by hand, today done by modern agricultural machinery) and after math grazing. By July many of the flowers are staring to seed and in the first spell of settled dry weather the hay will be mown. The haymaking process and aftermath grazing help scatter wildflower seed, thus perpetuating an assemblage of wild plants that have existed at Mottey for many hundreds of years.

This pattern of agricultural management has continued at Mottey Meadows for many hundreds of years, with some evidence that this was in operation as far back as 1336.