Between the Shropshire Union Canal and Chester Zoo’s car park, what was once a slope of “improved grassland” has undergone a transformation. Less than three years ago, I saw this patch of land stripped bare; now I run my hand through knee-high grasses woven with wildflowers. It is a temporal anomaly, a habitat that is simultaneously new and old.
This alteration of time and space is the work of Chester Zoo’s biodiversity officer, Sarah Bird, and colleagues, who are managing the nine hectares of the free-to-access nature reserve on its estate. They want to turn the clock back to a point before industrialised agriculture blanketed the land with fodder, and welcome back the wildlife.
To begin the restoration, topsoil was removed and the site was harrowed. Perennial wildflower seeds were bought from a specialist local charity (now defunct) and scattered in the dry spring of 2017. Bales of green hay from the Kipper’s Field meadow in Flintshire were also rolled out across the site to provide a boost.
Today, the resulting meadow is largely a wash of neutral tones, buff grasses and seedheads left to rust, with brighter notes provided by bird’s-foot trefoil. The acidic beacons of lady’s bedstraw are fading out, while turrets of common knapweed stand tall, their violet crowns studded with bumblebees.
Following recent storms, the mown path is slug-strewn and squelchy in parts. The water drains down the slope to an unlined pond, replenished by the rain and patrolled by a broad-bodied chaser dragonfly. The swallows that skimmed past me last month are nowhere to be seen, but I can hear reed buntings and reed warblers beyond the hedgerow boundary. Beneath the fresh breezes, the warmth of summer remains, and the meadow’s sheltered north-east corner is a haven for butterflies: common blues, small coppers and gatekeepers.
Would the early country diarist Thomas Coward recognise this as a landscape of his youth? I have found nothing for comparison in the archives. This modern meadow is so closely monitored and managed, it will perhaps never be a truly wild portal to the past. Instead, I hope, it can help us to move forward, shaped by the best of what came before.
