Creating Magnesian Limestone Grassland on the A1

In 2004 works by the Highways Agency to widen the A1(M) between junction 60 and 61, exposed cuttings through the rock Magnesian Limestone. The MAGical Meadows project was approached by the Highways Agency and their Agents A-one for advice on sowing the road cuttings. MAGical Meadows saw an opportunity for creating an area of magnesian limestone grassland and offered to find locally sourced seed. This is because a seed mix for magnesian limestone grassland is currently not available commercially.

The road cuttings are in very close proximity to Thrislington National Nature Reserve (NNR) – the regions best example of magnesian limestone grassland and provided the best opportunity for locally sourced seed. Both English Nature, who manage Thrislington NNR and Lafarge Aggregates, who own the site, were happy to support the A1(M) project and gave MAGical Meadows permission to collect seed.

Single species seed was hand collected from Thrislington NNR in June 2005 with the help of volunteers and then in mid-September 2005 mixed species seed was collected using specially designed seed machinery. The seed was cleaned and dried using some not very conventional techniques.

The cuttings were finally seeded in the autumn of 2005. The seeds were sown onto the cuttings by hydro-seeding, this involved the seed being fired from a specialist machine mixed with a paper mulch to help the seed stick to the steep cuttings.

Haswell to Hart Countryside Walkway

In the autumn of 2005 the Coast and Countryside volunteers along with staff from the District of Easington and MAGical Meadows project carried out scrub removal on a section of the Hart to Haswell Countryside Walkway.

The Hart to Haswell Countryside Walkway was a former railway line, stretching 9 miles from Haswell in the District of Easington to Hart Station in County Cleveland . The railway line, designed by George Stephenson, was opened in 1835 and was finally closed in 1980 and converted into a walk and cycleway.

The Coast and Countryside volunteers undertook two days of work on a magnesian limestone grassland located on the walkway cuttings east of High Hesleden. The site had received little or no grassland management since becoming a walkway. MAGical Meadows was worried that the site, which forms part of the Haswell to Hart County Wildlife Site (CWS), was deteriorating and the wildflowers such as betony would be lost under the encroaching scrub.

The volunteers cut and removed scrub including gorse, hawthorn, willows and roses and the whole of the grassland area was cut and raked. Great care was taken to leave scrub at the top of the embankment as a wildlife corridor connecting the grassland with woodland and dense gorse thickets.

If you would like information about volunteering with the Coast and Countryside Rangers contact Fiona Scully, Project Manager, Heritage Coast Staff Unit on 0191 3834640.