Whitehead Hall Meadows is a fantastic green space at the heart of the Astley Green community. The majority of the site is wildflower meadow, that is crisscrossed by a series of pathways with a pond as the centrepiece. Due to its history as a community meadow that was then used as a coal tip during World War Two, a unique mix of plants and animals can be found there. These include rare Eyebrights, Yellow Flag Iris and unusual bryophytes, including even Sphagnum Moss! Since it’s designation as a Millennium Green in 2000, the meadow and pathways have slowly been overcome with scrub as the surrounding woodland encroaches. In an effort to ensure that the meadow doesn’t succeed into woodland, the Carbon Landscape Partnership worked together with the Whitehead Millennium Green Trust to deliver some physical habitat and access improvements. Working in partnership, we were able to remove scrub from the meadow, reprofile the pond and line it with clay to make sure it holds water all year round and produce other wet scrapes and wet ditch habitat. We also built a tractor turning circle to enable an annual meadow hay cut, which will help keep scrub back and improve the condition of the meadow itself, providing our native wildflowers with more of a chance to thrive. We also secured the site with new gates, a kissing gate and made the site disabled and pram friendly through pathway improvements.
