Noreen, Sophia, Anna, Jake

Longrun Meadow project

Taunton, Somerset https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Longrun+Meadow/@51.018383,-3.1236598,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x486df52bb9983e03:0x2bca9daaeca96217!8m2!3d51.0183796!4d-3.1149051

Friends of Longrun Meadow http://www.longrunmeadow.co.uk/friends/

The Friends help run community activities and manage the wildlife on the meadows with Taunton Deane Borough Council. Our hope is to have a fantastic natural space for the people of Taunton to enjoy.

The ‘Friends of Longrun Meadow’ was established in 2010 working with Taunton Deane Borough Council (TDBC) to manage and maintain the open space, and encourage the local community to use the land through sporting activities, holding events and looking after the wildlife and environment of the meadows. In 2014 the Friends took on a greater role over the management of the meadows through a three year agreement with the Council and were provided with a small amount of funding to undertake some management of the natural landscape, such as hedge management, the woodland copses and the willow cathedral.

In 2013 the Friends group entered the meadows into an Entry Level Stewardship agreement to provide additional funds. The funding helps to contract a tenant farmer to take the grass for hay each year, thereby helping the wild flowers and grasses to florish. In addition, the Friends were successful in a grant application to the Somerset Community Foundation matched with funding provided by TDBC to start a wild flower restoration of Cathedral Field using yellow rattle.

The Friends also help organise events on the meadows, such as singing in the willow cathedral, a sporting and canine festivals and guided walks. There is a weekly free parkrun event and regular orienteering activities.

The friends are an active community group and would be very interested in anyone that would like to help with the management of the meadows. Everyone on the committee is a volunteer and they all have a passion for the meadows to be an enjoyable open space for the people of Taunton.

Jake has a good connection with the project lead and access to others who are involved. The project is ongoing, however Helen, his mum, is looking at stepping back after many years of being part of the project, so she does have an ability to step back into a retrospective overview, but also has a deep insight into the project as it is today and how it started and emerged to where it is today. The project is quite large in site area in the town, and there are fantastic outreach programmes already in place. The site is adjacent to a river and also part of a watershed. As rivers and watersheds are so important in regenerative processes for the UK this felt like a very relevant project for the group, even though Sophia is in South Africa.