It’s great to see my friend Peter Blackwell and his family getting the recognition they deserve for their work managing the hay meadows Bell Sykes Farm at Slaidburn in Lancashire.
The meadows at Bell Sykes are wonderful wildflower habitats and absolutely beautiful as well as being an important and rare habitat. Over several years, Peter has been working with the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust, hosting wildflower walks, seed saving workshops and other events to promote the wildflower meadows. The meadows at Bell Sykes were selected as the Coronation Meadow for Lancashire have also been used as donor meadows, to seed other land in the area and create new meadows.
I met Peter several years ago when he came on one of my Learn to Scythe courses and he’s gone on to be a fantastic mower and key player in northern scythe events as well as winning the Quality Cup at the Somerset Scythe Festival 2018.
I am teaching a Learn to Scythe course at Bell Sykes on 3rd August 2019. If you would like to come and learn scything at a fabulous location in Lancashire and see some of the farm, please email me stevetomlin8[at]gmail.com for details.
