Wild Cirencester
Cirencester Town Council is delighted to be a partner of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust for the Wild Towns Project. The Wild Towns project will create, connect and enhance green spaces for wildlife in seven towns across Gloucestershire. Locally this work includes wildflower meadows at City Bank Local Nature Reserve (LNR), Four Acre Field and Kingshill. A new path has also been installed through the Old Nursery side of City Bank LNR.
Wild Cirencester - Latest Update
Work has started to create diverse native wildflower meadows at City Bank, Kingshill and 4 Acre Field, with Victoria Road playing field due to be included in the spring. Please bear with us, as these potential meadows have been harrowed prior to being seeded with a wildflower and grass mix, in order to reduce the high nutrient content in the topsoil and provide a good seed-bed for the seedlings. This will temporarily look quite drastic, for which we apologise, but will soon start to develop into a more interesting and colourful place to walk and spend time, and will be an important resource for our beleaguered wildflowers and their pollinators. Diverse wildflower meadows do not spring up overnight, but with good management they will continually improve, and we will be monitoring this over the years with the Cirencester Wildlife Group. There will also be ways in which residents can help to manage these areas if you are interested, so please watch this space.
FWAG, Cirencester Wildlife Group and local residents will soon start enhancing areas of Watermoor churchyard for insects and wildflowers, and Ecosulis will be erecting bat roosting boxes in the amphitheatre and Querns Wood area. Access to green spaces will be improved for residents with the installation of a naturalistic path in the Old Nursery site and improved footbridge at City Bank. In the longer term, there are plans to enhance wildflowers on the Gloucester Street verge towards Stratton and the Fire Station roundabout.
Funding for this project comes from the European Regional Development Fund, Grundon Waste Management and a number of other funders across 7 towns, including Cirencester Town Council.