Events
A Decade of Community Conservation; Marches Meadow Group
This year marks a significant milestone for conservation across the Shropshire Hills.
The Shropshire Hills Landscape Trust celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2026 — a decade of channelling community support into practical, ground-level conservation work right across the National Landscape.
Find out more about the Trust and their investment in Marches Meadow Group & wildflower meadows
Illustrated talk by Richard Small, Marches Meadow Group.
The Marches Meadow Group promotes the conservation, protection and enhancement of species-rich hay meadows, grasslands and unimproved pastures.
The talk is free to attend. We ask for a £5.00 donation which will cover hall hire and refreshments, with all additional contributions going to our 10th Anniversary Conservation Fund.
Every pound helps us say 'yes' to more community projects protecting the Shropshire Hills.
STORY & LEGACY
The Marches Meadow Group (MMG) was established in 2015 to promote the conservation and enhancement of species-rich hay meadows and other grasslands. Originally MMG focused on the area between Shrewsbury and Bishop’s Castle as part of the Stiperstones and Corndon Hill Country Landscape Partnership Scheme, but it has now expanded to cover all of Shropshire and neighbouring parts of Powys. MMG has over 150 members, with meadows ranging from small lawns to large fields, but not all members have meadow areas.
The initial funding allowed the purchase of a tractor and hay-making machinery suitable for small hay meadows that were not suited to the larger equipment of farmers and contractors. Various additional items of machinery have been acquired (and sometimes re-sold) over the past ten years, and the focus is now on making hay with a pedestrian tractor (BCS) and associated implements.
Although MMG has had funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the People’s Postcode Lottery and the Green Recovery Challenge Fund for the more expensive items of equipment, the Shropshire Hills Landscape Trust (SHLT) has also been a much-appreciated source of grants. In 2020 the SHLT supported the purchase of a ‘Grass Grabber’ seed harvester that has been well used to collect seed from species-rich meadows for use in enhancing less diverse grasslands managed as hay meadows.
In 2024 SHLT awarded MMG a grant to organise the first National Meadows Conference in Shropshire. In partnership with Middle Marches Community Land Trust, the conference took place at Norbury Village Hall. Delegates came from all over the UK and included ecologists, land managers, researchers and meadow enthusiasts.
The success of the first conference led to a second national meadows conference in 2025, held at the farm near Bath owned by the wildflower seed company Emorsgate, and the third national meadows conference will be held in June 2026 at Kew Wakehurst Place, in partnership with Kew, the High Weald National Landscape Partnership as well as Middle Marches Community Land Trust. Thus SHLT’s initial funding is having a lasting legacy on the national scale.
In 2026 SHLT has contributed to a project that will assess MMG’s impact on the area and quality of local meadows. Professional ecologists will revisit a sample of 20 meadows and update the plant surveys MMG members undertook in the early years of MMG’s existence. The project will assess whether the advice MMG supplied to meadow owners and the actions they have taken have had a positive impact.
Event starts at 6:00pm.