Barton Fields Meadow Cut 2025

Volunteers from Abingdon Naturalists, Abingdon Green Gym and Radley Lakes Trust have completed the annual meadow cut of the grassland on Barton Fields.

Photos (c) S Bell

To maintain enhanced plant diversity, most of the grassland is mowed by machine and by scything in late summer and autumn.  The late mowing allows plants to shed seed and insects to complete their life cycles.  To maintain low fertility, the cut hay is raked off the grassland and stacked in compost heaps.  Heat generated by decomposition of the herbage makes these heaps ideal sites for grass snakes to lay their eggs and they now flourish and are common on the site.