The area of Wolseley called Park Bank is managed as a Hay Meadow, this means that it is cut once a year for hay, this is the traditional way of managing it and it encourages the wildlfowers that grow there.

Where have all the wildlfowers gone?
In Britain more than 95% of our wildlfower meadows had disappeared by 1984. This decline is still continuing. Until the mid 1980's the farming community was encouraged to increase food production, and farmers were given financial incentives to farm land intensively. Traditional methods of farming became uneconomical, resulting in the destruction of many hay meadows.

Ploughing up grasslands to make way for arable crops, or fertilizing them to produce dairy pasture will destroy them as habitats. However, wihdrawing a grassland from the agricultural system is just as bad. Grassland animal and plant communities have developed alongside agriculture for centuries, and farming practices have influenced the character of the grassland. Hay is traditionally cut in late June or July, this is how we manage the meadow at The Wolseley Centre, the flowers have time to set their seed before the crop is removed.

If the hay crop is not cut then the meadow will gradually be invaded by shrubs and trees and the sun-loving flowers will dissapear. Therefore, careful and traditional management is needed to sustain a wildflower meadow. Our meadow is cut for us by a local farmer who takes the hay away to feed his cattle with.