Meadows and Pastures. The Cannon Hill Park Meadow

Meadows and pastures traditionally served the same purpose for feeding cattle and sheep throughout the year, pastures for all-year grazing and meadows providing hay for winter feeding, and these grassland features would have been an integral part of the city structure and development of the marketplace well into the 20th century.

Many of our meadows are now managed for their wildlife value, maintained and enhanced on a single 'cut and collect' regime each year. By removing the nutrient-rich cuttings, the practice ensures a nutrient-poor soil layer, thus enabling a variety of flowering plants to thrive, rather than a coarse grass-dominated grassland. 

Cannon Hill Meadow 2022

Highgate Park was Birmingham's first purchased municipal park, bought by the city council from a Trust set up at the request of the previous landowner Elizabeth Hollier in 1790, with an official acknowledgement by Mayor Joseph Chamberlain in 1876, three years after the opening of Cannon Hill Park. Up until then, the site was used for centuries as a grazing area for fattening cattle and sheep before herding along Bradford Street to the marketplace

Much of the parkland we know today had similar origins as pasture and meadow and later bequeathed to the people of Birmingham by benefactor land owners.

Whilst pasture land was mostly, if not entirely used for grazing, meadows traditionally provide hay for animal winter feeding, again both of these practices occur in city nature reserves today.

The reconstructed 18th-century map of Moseley by Andy Slater

The main consideration for grassland management in city parks today is nature conservation, and the value of flower-rich meadows is now appreciated by many local authorities throughout the UK and Europe.

Cannon Hill section from the Mosely Tithe map
by Andy Slater

We can see from the likely 18th-century reconstructed map that the area now known as Cannon Hill Park was a combination of pasture and meadow and part of the River Rea floodplain. The land at this time was enclosed, to form a patchwork of fields which were probably divided by hedge and ditch. The Great Oak, around 400 years old (6-metre girth) has stood over the current area that we now call Cannon Hill Meadow, and has witnessed the changes since the days of James I and Charles I.

Our meadow lies immediately east of the river and was probably flooded annually until modern flood alleviation engineering reduced the occurrence.

During the 1980s the meadow was sown with a mix of corn meadow species including poppy, corn cockle, cornflower, corn marigold and others to provide a vibrant and colourful annual display, and many people remember this and comment on its loss.

The meadow was effectively destroyed in the 2000s by the nearby construction of a large water treatment plant, the meadow site being utilised for the deposition of many tons of excavated soil. This was eventually cleared and the site was re-landscaped following the completion of works. It was then decided to create a meadow with perennial flowers rather than annual.

The wildflower mix (2010)

The initial sowing, following reinstatement, contained a mix of perennial species including, Kidney Vetch, Wild Carrot, Yellow Trefoil, Black Knapweed and many others.

Common Spotted Orchid

The early year results were okay with a balance of grass species and other flowering plants, some, like the Kidney Vetch and Wild Carrot doing very well the first two or three years, before eventually disappearing.

Hay strewing (2016)

Hay bales from a Worcestershire flower-rich meadow were imported via The Nature Improvement Area scheme, financed by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

2022 partial cut and collect

Since the 2016 hay strew, many new species have been introduced and seem to be thriving in the new setting. Common Spotted and Green Winged Orchids bloomed in good numbers and other species, such as Black knapweed, vetches, and trefoils have also flowered well this year.

Follow this video link to see a variety of plants and invertebrates living in the meadow

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=885311538485357

This year we decided to cut just half the meadow and leave the uncut vegetation as a winter habitat for small mammals, amphibians and invertebrates. This will then be cut early next year.