We announced in our Spring 2025 newsletter that we (National Trust and FMP) had secured funds from the Open University to deliver this project https://floodplainmeadows.org.uk/keep-updated/news/tools-realise-socio-economic-benefits-floodplains-under-restoration-treasure
The work was initiated by Stewart Clarke (National Specialist - Freshwater, Catchments & Estuaries) and Felicity Roos (NT National Consultant Soils) and our Ambassadors who are also staff at the NT (Steve Beal and Simon Barker) who developed a list of NT sites where floodplain meadows were already present, or there was potential to restore them. The funding was to survey as much of this land (and other land subsequently highlighted) as possible, and assess the potential for floodplain meadow restoration. Alongside this, using the unique collections of the National Trust, we wished to explore how we might be able to engage a wider community around the cultural history and value of meadows.
We have now finished the funded work, although discussions continue about where we go next. We promised to share a summary of what we had achieved in the Autumn newsletter, so here goes (its been a gargantuan effort). Our specific objectives for the project were to deliver:
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A suite of floodplain meadow guidance notes tailored to NT staff & tenants
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A farmer engagement event on floodplain meadows for NT tenants
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A prioritised list of floodplain meadow restoration sites on NT land
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A video resource illustrating a case study of using NT art collections to engage people about meadow restoration
The field survey work was shared between Caroline O’Rourke, Irina Tatarenko and Emma Rothero, ably supported by our intern, David Hopkins who was employed for this project for 12 weeks and underpinned by support from NT staff across the country who met with the surveyors and talked about their sites. The National Trust facilitated visits to 20 properties across England between May and July. Between us we were able to visit 711.41 ha of floodplain land owned by the National Trust comprising a mix of existing floodplain meadows (including some SSSIs), restoration fields, and plenty of potential restoration fields. In previous years we have visited a further 184.94 ha of land owned by the NT, making a total of 896.35 ha. The majority of surveyed land was visited as potential restoration.
We are now in the process of writing reports for all properties that we visited and will next be compiling a list of sites with potential based on the visit assessment. We hope to develop these into funding bids.
Alongside the survey work, we also ran a training day for NT staff, which was held in York, and have produced some guidance for NT staff interested in managing, and restoring floodplain meadows. This will hosted on internal NT webpages.
For the arts element of the project, we worked with an art historian academic at the OU (Dr Sam Shaw) and a second intern (Joanne Norris) employed through the project, to scour the National Trust art/object archives to find pieces linked to floodplain meadows. Sam identified Attingham Park as a NT property with some good objects in the collection that could link to the floodplain meadow restoration work that is also on-going at that property. He therefore worked with the NT Cultural Heritage Curator Sarah Kay, and Countryside Manager Paul Roberts to produce a short film exploring the objects and their relationship to the wider landholding of the Trust.
The link to the long film produced as a result is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Se3BHPv9o and there are six 1 minute videos, all saved in this playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQdkll7Mtm6PkD83CG_8Rh1L7haz9_z_c that we will use to promote the longer film. We are now discussing with the NT staff at Attingham how this video can be used within the property.
Additionally, Sam and Joanne looked at the collections from over twenty properties. Joanne identified almost a hundred objects worth exploring further, focusing on plants, birds, mammals and meadow landscapes. The objects range widely, from botanical paintings to wall hangings to agricultural equipment.
Beyond Attingham Park (on which further work could be done), they identified Calke Abbey, Lacock and Charlecote Park as possible collections and properties to explore further.
We are now also looking at how we can develop this element of the project through further research, linking to wider property engagement.
We have started to promote this project more widely, and have articles in The Conversation and through a number of Open University communication links including the OU Research Newsletter and the Open Societal Challenges blogs.
National Trust staff training day in York
