We walk the meadows daily. The mown-in path on the Tump (main image) catching your eye from the garden so that you are drawn onward, first over the wet ditch and then, following the cut line in the meadow, up onto the crown of the field from where we can see our influence on the land. The best part of twenty acres stretching both up and down the valley and fifteen or so of which we have over-sown to convert the hard-grazed pasture to the dynamic environment that the meadows are today. 

Onward and we cross the lane into the top fields that are called The Tynings. There we follow the walked-in path that loops the upper and lower meadows. This path is made by the sheep that graze the fields after we make hay from the meadows and it feels natural to be walking their line of desire. We know from the invaluable oral history of our neighbours Josie and Rachel that these fields were once known as the Hospital Fields and that the animals were sent there when they needed to “do better”. Even in the first year after converting the fields from hard-grazed pasture to hay meadow and winter grazing, we saw their potential in the range of wild grasses and matrix of wildflowers that had remained there. With careful management we have seen the meadows improve immeasurably in the last decade, each year being different and richer.