Happy World Book Day - The North Devon and Exmoor landscape has inspired many writers and poets.

The  North Devon and Exmoor landscape has inspired many writers and poets.

Westward Ho! is synonymous with two famous authors, It was named after the novel ‘Westward Ho!’ written by Charles Kingsley when he lived in #Bideford. He grew up around the bay in Clovelly. His children’s novel ‘The Water-Babies’, is said to be inspired by the fishing village where his father was once Rector.

Rudyard Kipling, author of ‘The Jungle Book’, attended the United Services College, the long white building. The first verse of his poem ‘If’ features on the promenade below Kipling Tors. His collection of stories, ‘Stalky & Co’, is based on his experiences at the College, which he attended from January 1878 to 1882.  He was a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Today's writers are still being inspired by our beautiful coast and countryside including North Devon's own Liz Shakespeare, the author of five books set in Devon. She was born and brought up in Devon and her writing has been influenced by the family stories she grew up with and the sense of being deeply rooted in the area. She draws her inspiration from the Devon countryside and from the strong historical identity of the area.

In the frame what was once the United Services College. Westward Ho! Photo credit Pat Adams (North Devon Focus)

In the frame Kipling Tors. Westward Ho! Photo credit Pat Adams (North Devon Focus)

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Photos taken #onthisday 4th March 2017 

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Other authors and poets of note

RD Blackmoor - Lorna Doone

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

RF Delderfield - A Horseman Riding By, To Serve Them All My Days

Percey Bysshe Shelley

William Wordsworth

Henry Williamson - Tarka the Otter

Liz Shakespeare - The Song of the Skylark; The Postman Poet and The Poems of Edward Capern; All Around The Year; The Turning of the Tide; Fever – A Story from a Devon Churchyard; The Memory be Green

Keeping meadows in mind – and why they matter. Free online talk bu author Stephen Moss on the importance of wildflower meadows

Best-selling nature writer and broadcaster Stephen Moss is giving a free online talk to illustrate why creating wildflower meadows is important for turning around wildlife declines and helping to tackle climate change.

The 'Why meadows matter' talk, on Wednesday 3rd February at 7:30pm, focuses on a key habitat for the subject of Stephen Moss's latest book, The Swallow: A Biography. Wildflower-rich meadows are home to a diverse array of insects. That means they are important places not only for bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinators, but also for the smaller prey species hunted by insect-eating birds such as swallows.

This online event has been organised by Dartmoor-based Moor Meadows, a community wildflower and wildlife conservation group. Open to everyone, the event is free but you must register.  CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR PLACE

Traditional wildflower meadows have disappeared from most of the English countryside, largely due to changes in agriculture during the 20th century. With the loss of diverse wild plants came an associated loss of insects and other wildlife.

But in recent years, techniques have been perfected to re-create wildflower-rich grasslands. As groups such as Moor Meadows have shown, wildflower 'meadows' can be restored or created on farmland, in gardens and churchyards, and on roadside verges.

Event organizer and Moor Meadows co-founder Donna Cox of Buckfastleigh said: "Wildflower meadows are among the most important wildlife habitats, as they support disproportionately high numbers of plant and animal species. Yet 97% of Britain's wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s. Meadows have a fascinating history and are a wonderful wildlife spectacle in the present – but they are important for the future of both wildlife and people."

The free talk on 'Why meadows matter' will include a Question and Answer session so attendees can quiz Stephen Moss about the wildlife to be found in meadows and the importance of wildflower-rich grasslands for reducing pollution in our waterways, storing carbon from the atmosphere, reversing the declines in pollinating insects, helping to improve people's mental health and more.

Stephen Moss said: "Wildflower meadows have such a central importance not only for wildlife, but also in our history, literature and culture. They have all but disappeared in recent decades, but Moor Meadows is now helping to bring them back."

In addition to the general Q&A session the free event will also include a conversation between Stephen Moss and Dartmoor-based RSPB Chairman Kevin Cox.

Stephen Moss - Author of  'The Swallow: A Biography'

People enjoying Brimpts meadow, near Dartmeet. Photo credit Wendy Searle

Meadow brown butterfly Photo credit Robbie Phillips

"Keeping meadows in mind – and why they matter"

Free online talk on the importance of wildflower meadows organised by More Meadows – Wednesday 3rd February at 7:30pm

Places on the free online talk by Stephen Moss - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

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>>READ MORE POSTS & ALL ABOUT MORE MEADOWS

More Meadow-makers plan to get Torridge blooming and buzzing

A new community group for West Devon and Torridge aims to support landowners, farmers and gardeners keen to restore or create wildflower meadows.

More Meadows West Devon & Torridge is based on the successful Moor Meadows Dartmoor community, which since its founding in 2015 has grown to include more than 800 meadow-makers, managing more than 1,000 acres of wildflower meadow to benefit wild plants and wildlife on Dartmoor and beyond.

Thanks to funding from the Devon Environment Foundation, the More Meadows concept is an attempt to replicate the original Moor Meadows group's success by supporting new networks of meadow-makers across Devon.

The new More Meadows West Devon & Torridge group has been founded by local nature enthusiasts concerned about ongoing wildlife declines but inspired by efforts to create more wildlife-friendly habitats.

Although lost from much of the countryside due to changes in agriculture during the 20th century, traditional wildflower-rich grassland can be maintained, restored or created on farmland, in gardens and churchyards, and on road verges.

This conservation work can play a crucial role in turning around the fortunes of threatened bees, butterflies and other pollinators as well as the birds and mammals that rely on insects for food.

Co-founder of the new group Jon Valters, who manages a small nature reserve near St Giles on the Heath, said: "The idea is that people in West Devon and Torridge will be able to provide each other with support and advice on how to create or restore wildflower-rich grasslands with the aim of substantially increasing the number of wildflower meadows in this part of Devon."

He continued: "Some members of the new group have already come forward with projects including a proposal to create wildflower verges in their village. We are also keen to help people who wish to create smaller areas of wildflower grasslands in their gardens or local churchyard."

The original Moor Meadows Dartmoor group has held scything workshops so meadow-makers can master this traditional grassland management technique and also very popular Open Meadow events, with invitations to view wildflower meadows on private land, chat to the owner and be inspired by what can be achieved. The West Devon & Torridge hub hopes to organise similar events and workshops in future.

The Meadow-Makers' Forum, launched online last month, encourages the creation and spread of new More Meadows groups. The West Devon & Torridge group is the first new one to form and details of the group can be found in the Local Groups section at http://forum.moremeadows.org.uk/

Supporting this process for More Meadows is Devon ecologist Tracey Hamston, who said: "New groups of local meadow enthusiasts are being formed as individuals reach out to other wildlife-friendly landowners in their area. The online forum is providing a network for people to find others living nearby, organise getting together and planning how to move forward, with the aim of creating and restoring as much species-rich meadow as possible and connecting to like-minded folk in the process."

Joining the online forum is free and offers resources and advice on managing a meadow - including where to source wildflower seeds or seed-rich 'green hay' – while forum members can help identify the wild plants and creatures in field or garden meadows.

The West Devon & Torridge More Meadows group is in the process of setting up a small steering group and is particularly keen to recruit a volunteer with IT skills.

For more information see the More Meadows forum at http://forum.moremeadows.org.uk/ or for anyone without easy internet access, co-founder Jon Valters can be contacted on 01566 784196.

Marbled white butterfly. Photo credit Mike Symes

Jon Valters of More Meadows West Devon & Torridge group

Traditional haymeadow. Photo credit Jon Valters

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More Meadows West Devon & Torridge group: The new group has been formed by wildflower meadow and wildlife enthusiasts in the local area, aiming to build on the success of the Moor Meadows Dartmoor group, using the group model known as More Meadows.

 

Moor Meadows Dartmoor: Moor Meadows Dartmoor is a community group established in 2015, whose aim is to help each other in conserving, restoring and creating wildflower meadows, on any scale, in the landscape of Dartmoor. Moor Meadows Dartmoor have set up the online Meadow Makers' Forum to help with the formation of new groups across Devon

 

More Meadows: More Meadows is an umbrella name for the network of new meadows groups being established in different parts of Devon, all sharing information via the new Meadow Makers' Forum. Establishment of the Forum has been made possible by a grant from the Devon Environment Foundation.

 

Devon Environment Foundation: The Devon Environment Foundation aims to protect and restore Devon's natural beauty by funding local nature regeneration projects.