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Hay Meadow at the Old Shepherd’s Cottage at Coed Nercwys

Date: 14.03.2011

Type: Biodiversity Volunteering

The Forestry Commission Wales and the AONB partnership project work has continued throughout the year on the enclosure in front of the old Shepherd’s Cottage at Coed Nercwys, with the aim of transforming the land into a flower rich, hay meadow.  Instead of the old tumbled down wall around the enclosure, there now stands an impressive dry stone wall, built by local craftsmen, with the help of Denbighshire Countryside Service volunteers completing the top wall. 

Nercwys children

Children from Nercwys Primary School got to bury two time capsules within the restored wall.  Each child wrote a short piece about themselves, their families and what they enjoy doing now and add pictures to the capsule, which hopefully one day future generations will have a chance to discover.  The other capsule contained messages from the craftsmen who had rebuilt the wall and images of the cottage in its original state surrounded by open moorland and more recent images of the cottage in its ruinous state and the work in progress on the site now to rejuvenate the area.

Once the dry stone wall was in place the decision was made to bring in livestock to help clear the enclosure which was overgrown with bramble and bracken.  At the beginning of June, eight pigs arrived on loan from Mochyn Merllyn in Cyffylliog.  They were a traditional breed called Oxford, Sandy and Black, nine weeks old and quickly became local celebrities.  After a slow start, the pigs began chomping their way through the vegetation and digging large holes in search of tasty roots.  By the end of their fifteen week stay the enclosure was cleared of almost all vegetation and ready for sowing.

Nercwys pigs

Information passed on, suggested the enclosure has had various uses in the past, from potato growing, grazing livestock and being a holding area for breeding pheasants.  Now the next stage in its history was to sow the enclosure with a wildflower seed mix, to create an important habitat for many plant and insect species.  Once again the children from Nercwys Primary School had the opportunity to play their part in the development of the enclosure by helping to sow the seed by hand, with extra help provided by members of the Denbighshire Countryside Volunteers.  Now we just have to wait for the meadow to develop and burst into colour, although you may need to be patient, this could take a couple of years! 

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