NOTES ON DECEMBER 2007 MEETING

The Regeneration of Upland Hay Meadows

Continuing the theme of the restoration of the natural environment the Alston Moor Historical Society was pleased to welcome John O’Reilly, a project manager of the AONB Partnership, to their December meeting to talk about the about the regeneration of upland hay meadows. The talk was illustrated by many excellent photographs. Many of the meadowlands are marginal and over the years when alternative sources of feed became available and transport was easier, they fell into decline. Nevertheless some are still in use and provide a fascinating opportunity to study the plant life and see how it has changed over the years. In the UK there are only 1100 hectares of this rare grassland left and 40% of this total is in the North Pennines AONB.

The meadows in our area are much higher than anywhere else in the UK and can be up to 450 metres. This is beyond the optimum ideal altitude for meadows plants and has meant that the better equipped plants have fared better. Plants that have rhizomes under the ground are not so severely affected by wind, frost, etc. Lady’s Mantle, Globe Flowers and some Cranesbill are included in this category. These are plants which like wet, windy and cloudy weather, conditions which are found in abundance on the hills of the North Pennines!

Given the unfavourable general conditions which exist, the question as to why the meadows were created in the first place, has to be asked. The answer, like so many other issues in this area, lies with the lead mining industry and the miners. In other parts of the country the population was able to farm at more amenable levels but in the Pennines the workers were obliged to go where the lead, and the work, was found. As this was on high ground they were obliged to make the best of it, even though it was far from ideal. Many miners had a small plot of land where they were able to raise a few animals and crops for sustenance, and the annual hay crop was essential for winter feed. Consequently, with the decline of mining, these meadows became less important.

Management was the governing factor for the prosperity of the species-rich meadows. There would be a single cut with aftermath grazing and the land would be ‘shut up’ in April or May. No manure or inorganic fertiliser was used, with perhaps only the occasional liming. However farming management changed with the introduction of fertilisers, use of machinery and movement away from land, leaving some meadows uncut and neglected. In many cases the flat areas of meadows carries different plant populations those in the field borders, verges and bank sides, where machinery cannot be used.

Apart from the objective of ensuring the survival of plant species which are already vanishing, there are side benefits from using crops from species-rich land as farmers consider such hay to be more nutritious and even believe they have fewer vet’s bills!
Working with farmers, meadows which will support regeneration are being identified, as are those species rich-meadows which still exist. The latter are being selectively harvested for seed, which is then sown by spreading in the meadows chosen to be improved. This is inevitably a slow process and, to speed things along, 2007 saw the use of volunteer botanists to collect seed by hand and to use this to grow plug plants to be planted next year.

The AONB ‘Project Hay Time’, will run from May 2006 until October 2009 and aims to enhance and restore 140 hectares of upland hay meadows in the North Pennines AONB. A similar scheme is being operated in the Yorkshire Dales.

The speaker at our next meeting on the 9th January will be member Simon Danby who will be ‘Telling Tales on Alston Moor’, using his extensive collection of stories, sound bytes and photographs.