Seventh Heaven at Wildlife Meadow

An award-winning wildlife haven and a friendly place to chat with a neighbor right on your doorstep. Sounds happy, doesn’t it? Well, you can find such a place in the heart of Hanwell.

The Katherine Buchan Meadow is a 7-year project lovingly created from what was a ‘garden of rest’ created in the 1970s, a patch of open space in the middle of a terrace of houses and opposite a primary school. Where once there was a sprawling and overgrown mess used for the local dogs to relieve themselves, there is now a cleverly designed landscape of benches, paths, grass, wildflowers and wildlife habitats.

In 2017, the project got off the ground thanks to funding from Ealing Council’s Transform Your Space program (now called Future Ealing) and the crowdfunding efforts of local people – as well as a huge amount of elbow grease from them, supported by the council. parks team and park rangers.

“This project will create a beautiful and peaceful place for everyone in our local community to enjoy,” Amanda Rutkowski told Around Ealing when the funding was first received after she and neighbors pitched the idea to the council and others people living nearby. . She continued: “Having a communal space is so important to the people who live around here, especially as some don’t have gardens; and for others, we hope it will help alleviate feelings of isolation by creating a place where you want to hang out and meet your neighbors.”

Fast forward

Well, 7 years later, and those goals have been more than achieved – with multiple awards and happy neighbors both attesting to that fact.

The meadow has been awarded the Green Flag quality mark by Keep Britain Tidy for most years since 2018/19 and last year achieved a gold award from London in Bloom.

When we came down to visit again in April this year, Amanda told us: “More than the awards, the biggest accolade is that it’s used by the local school and it’s used by all ages, young and old, and now it is a real community space. So we did what we set out to do.”

The finishing touches have been added to the meadow in recent months, with purpose-built information boards and signs – showing what wildlife can be found there and explaining the history of the site. It was named after Katherine Buchan, who built women’s almshouses on the site in 1876 and they lasted 100 years.

The addition of the new tiles completed an impressive team effort by the residents, which was led by Amanda, who is a gardener and designer by trade, and neighbor Sim Flemons, who specializes in garden design and building projects.

They are among the 5 trustees and 3 volunteers on the committee of The Katherine Buchan Meadow Trust, a charitable limited company set up to oversee the project.

“A wonderful place”

“We all find the meadow so relaxing and a great place to socialize,” said Amanda. “You can go outside for 2 minutes and find you’ve been there for an hour. In the evening, the bank faces the sunset, which is wonderful. It’s amazing in the golden hour. Now it’s somewhere to sit and where people stop to talk as they pass. We also organize events here, including at Christmas. It’s a wonderful place to live.

“People used to walk through space, not through it. It was an unloved place where people littered and it attracted more and more low-level anti-social behaviour. It’s so different now.

“Creating a sustainable wildlife habitat has been another goal of ours and we have stag beetles, all kinds of insects and birds here, including in our bird boxes; as well as squirrels and foxes that visit all the time. We have a nature detective trail and a mini scavenger hunt for kids to participate in that we created for Earth Day.”

St Mark’s Primary School, which is opposite the meadow, uses the nature trails and the children enjoy the space at school pick-up time.

Both the school’s Parents’ Association and the local William Hobbayne Charity helped with recent fundraising to replace the wooden posts marking the paths through the meadow. And a Meadow Masters scheme has been set up to encourage young people to get involved in meadow maintenance.

But the team is always looking for more volunteers.

“You can’t tame nature and it’s a constant learning experience, but you have to manage it, so we’re always looking for more volunteers and funding,” explained Amanda.

To get involved, email [email protected]