Last modified on Thu 28 Jan 2021 10.05 EST
On a perfect summer day, the bees drone and a million flowers dance as a dozen people move across the meadow, cutting hay with a rhythmic swish of scythes. As children play, the haymakers pause for refreshments of cake and cider.
This would resemble a scene from a long-lost rural idyll if the scythes were not Austrian carbon-steel and the children were not identifying flowers on smartphones. After a century in which more than 97% of Britain’s wildflower-rich meadows were destroyed, meadowland is making a comeback.
The miraculous properties of meadows – and even, improbably, cutting them with scythes – are being cherished again. The charity Plantlife has led the creation of 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of wildflower-rich meadows since 2013 – including 90 meadows to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation, in a campaign initiated by Prince Charles. Scores of grassroots meadow groups have also sprung up, inspired by everything from Poldark’s scything scenes to books by the Cumbrian hill farmer James Rebanks and the West Sussex landowner Isabella Tree. Wildflowers are returning to not just rural, but urban communities. And this year, the government’s Green Recovery Fund will create another 500 hectares of meadows, with trainee “meadow makers” learning the skills of meadow maintenance.