Wildflower meadows at West Pentire

Wildflowers at West Pentire

Found between Holywell Bay and Crantock Beach and carefully managed for nature and people, the West Pentire arable fields are teeming with plants and wildlife in early summer. The Trust’s goal at West Pentire is to provide flower-rich habitat for pollinators, shelter for mammals, birds and invertebrates, and a winter food source for over wintering birds.

The farmland here is managed specifically as a nature reserve for plants and wildlife associated with arable cultivation and is not commercially farmed.  It’s one of only a few such sites in Britain.

The display of flowers can vary considerably each year. Mostly due to the impact of the weather. A common misconception is that we ‘plant’ the poppies every year. In fact, the poppies, and the other beautiful array of wildflowers, are a rather lovely by product of the way we manage the headland for the benefit of wildlife and nature.

For more than twenty years West Pentire headland has been managed in a similar way. Each year, half of each field is ploughed in autumn and then left fallow (i.e. no seed is planted). This is where the poppies, corn marigolds and other arable wildflowers naturally tend to come up.

The other half of each field is ploughed in spring and sown with barley. This barley crop is left unharvested and is a great food source for wild birds over winter.

Each year, we swap which half of the field is ploughed and which is sown with barley. This, along with the changes in the weather, are why the displays of wild flowers varies every year (we tend to see fewer poppies after particularly wet winters).

The National Trust monitors the fields and which plants grow allowing us to adapt the management as needed, with improving the habitat for nature being the main priority.