Why are Water Meadows so Important?

It is very easy to look at Ballard Water Meadow and think it is ‘just a muddy field.’ Actually, it is a bit more than that. Water meadows have a historical importance right across the UK, some are larger than others, but all have significance in the way they promote wildlife and control water flows.

We are very lucky in this area in, not only having Ballard Water Meadows on our doorstep, but also in having some other of the most significant major water meadows nearby, including Salisbury, Totton (Lower Test) and Romsey (Fishlake Meadows). Go slightly further afield and you discover those at Winchester and Stockbridge too.

Water meadows were historically designed to flood, producing rich soil and providing controlled irrigation that promoted a bountiful crop of grass for grazing and a reliable crop of hay. Careful flooding also tended to avoid frosts, kept the worst weeds down and encouraged a wonderful array of flora and fauna. The chalk rivers in the south of England are particularly suitable for this use, but, sadly, these areas are also those, which are under pressure from modern development following abandonment.

The careful agricultural practices that created water meadows have all but disappeared but it has been recognised that such areas have massive benefits to the modern world. Walk around Ballard Water Meadow during much of the year and you will see the wonderful range of wildlife such a habitat produces, even in such a relatively small area. The masses of insects and plants support a glorious number of birds and mammals.

(An interesting video on water meadow restoration in Poland)

But recent experiences have brought another huge benefit of water meadows into sharp focus. The winter of 2013 in particular brought heavy rains and floods in several places. The Wildlife Trusts, in particular, now understand that encouraging water meadows and related bogs and mires means that potentially destructive flood water can be contained in wider areas and released gradually to avoid large volumes of water descending on more vulnerable areas of human habitation.

Unfortunately, recent generations have not understood this benefit and development has, and continues, to reduce areas of water retention. Fishlike Meadows in Romsey, for example, has suffered flooding in recent years, following building on the edges of the water meadows. Thank goodness the promised creation of a water meadow nature reserve there should prevent the problem worsening.

Mankind is never as smart as he likes to think he is, however. Developers are constantly attempting to build on nice, flat water meadows, despite the obvious dangers of doing so.

In Cumbria, an excellent scheme for restoring watercourses and meadows is designed to relieve the flood pressure on Carlisle and other towns that have suffered so much in recent years. Similar projects have been successfully undertaken up and down the country but, sadly, in the New Forest attempts by the Forestry Commission and the National Park to restore Latchmore Brook to a natural, winding watercourse with useful mires either side have been hampered by presumably well-meaning but shortsighted activists. These people cite damage to recreation and short-term disruption as reasons to stop the work, quite ignoring the long-term benefits of better water retention and massively increased habitats for insects, plants and animals.

We are therefore extremely lucky to have Ballard Water Meadow in New Milton. The Friends who work every week to restore the water meadow and woods should be proud that they are creating, admittedly in a smaller way, such an asset to the British countryside and the health of the nation.

To understand more about water meadows, their history and their advantages, why not visit the Caught By The River website and the Floodplain Meadows Partnership?

(Video showing what happened in Romsey, Hampshire when the water meadows flooded on to roads built on the flood plain)