For Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation
Enhancing land through a Countryside Stewardship Scheme
Working closely with the Heritage Foundation, Natural England and the tenant farmer, we helped them enhance woodland and agricultural land through a Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
The original garden city
Letchworth in North Hertfordshire was the first garden city, founded in 1903 and managed by the Heritage Foundation. They asked us to compile a higher tier application to Natural England’s Countryside Stewardship for both woodland and agricultural land.
We surveyed all woodlands and agricultural land to assess the baseline conditions, and designed a scheme that would benefit the local community and enhance biodiversity, while not restricting agricultural production.
New meadows, ponds and orchards
The successful scheme has enabled hundreds of hectares of flower-rich meadows and orchards to be created, and existing orchards managed more effectively. It’s also meant that ponds can be rejuvenated, and former arable land reverted to meadows managed through grazing with traditional breeds.
