Communities called to celebrate and protect the UK’s irreplaceable meadows this National Meadows Day - Plantlife

Communities across the UK are being invited to reconnect with their local landscapes this National Meadows Day (Saturday 4 July), celebrating the cultural, ecological and historical importance of meadows – and calling for renewed action to protect them.

Plantlife’s National Meadows Day shines a light on how generations of communities have cared for these spaces, embedding meadows into local identity, culture and pride.

At Lugg Meadow in Herefordshire, one of the UK’s last surviving Lammas meadows, the relationship between people and land stretches back over a thousand years, with the site recorded in the Domesday Book. Here, the landscape is still managed through a traditional communal system: land is divided into strips marked by ancient ‘dole stones’, hay is cut in July, and from Lammas Day (1 August), the meadow is opened for shared grazing. For hundreds of years, local families have continued this rhythm, sustaining both livelihoods and biodiversity.

Jonathan Stone, Reserve Manager at Plantlife’s Lugg Meadow Nature Reserve, said: “National Meadows Day is a chance to celebrate places like Lugg Meadows, where nature and community come alive together. Each spring the meadow bursts into colour with spectacular fritillaries and a rich variety of wildlife, but just as important is the human story – patches of land still cared for by local families, passed down through generations. It’s a powerful reminder that our meadows are not only vital for nature, but a shared heritage we all have a role in protecting.”

An estimated 97% of all of our meadows have been lost, many of which are historic, irreplaceable meadows which are older than historic buildings like the Houses of Parliament.