© Copyright Friends of Belper Parks, St Johns Chapel, The Butts, Belper, DE56 1HX, U.K. Site update 1st September 2008
Why create a wildflower meadow in Coppice Field?
During the last 50 years approximately 90% of all wildflower meadows have disappeared and of the remaining 10% 1 in 5 are threatened with extinction. Along with the disappearance of the wildflower meadows, the number of butterflies and other insects on which our very existence is dependant have declined along with their source of food and habitat.
The last time Coppice Field, the field between Coppice Car Park and Coppice Brook, was managed in any way was about 1985, when Manor Farm used it to graze their cows on. Since then the field has been totally neglected . As a result the grass has grown long, rank and full of tussocks. Very few people venture now into the field because it is so difficult to walk in the field. Apart from the tussocks of grass, there are also a number of potholes that one can easily tread in, and risk straining or breaking an ankle.
In the 1980s and 90s a Kestrel could regularly be seen hovering over the field looking for prey. The Crows controlled the Parks Pigeon population using the field as a killing ground.
Today, the Kestrel can only occasionally be seen sitting on the overhead power cables, scanning the short grass between the path to Coppice Brook and old peoples homes on the site of Manor Farm. Pickings are not too good as his presence is very intermittent. The Crows once a regular visitor to the Parks are not seen nearly so often. Consequently the pigeon population has increased and spread to other parts of the Parks.
To improve the situation, the Friends of Belper Parks intend to change Coppice Field into a wildflower meadow. This will be a four or five year project. Autumn 2006, we will prepare a number of plots in different ways to see which wildflower planting method is most successful. In the Summers of 2007 and 2008 we will carry out a survey of the wildflowers with the help of local primary schools, and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. The results of the surveys will help us decide which planting method has achieved the best results. In Autumn 2008 we will prepare the whole of the field for sowing. Assess progress in the summer of 2009, and hopefully by the Summer of 2010 the wildflower meadow should be well into production. There will be a regime of grass cutting in future years to keep the field in good condition and gradually, as the fertility of the soil is reduced, the wildflowers will come to dominate the grass.
Use this hyperlink to see the interaction between wildflowers and animals in the Parks.
