THE WILD SIDE OF Moreton-in-Marsh

The days are getting shorter but there’s plenty of reasons to be cheerful, says Sue Bradley, who discovers how a Cotswolds town is becoming more wildlife-friendly and pots up some bulbs for an insect-friendly spring display

- Sue Bradley

Picturesque Moreton-in-Marsh is an archetypal Cotswolds market town that’s well known on the tourism trail.

Now work is underway to attract visitors of a different kind through the enhancement of open areas such as parks, cemeteries and allotments.

Moreton is one of seven Gloucestershire communities to benefit from the European Regional Development Fund’s Wild Towns Project, which funds improvements to green spaces to benefit both wildlife and people.

Key areas in the town chosen for enhancement work include Queen Victoria Gardens, in which more access paths have been created and work is underway to make the edges of amenity grassland more natural and wildlife-rich with the addition of hawthorn and blackthorn along the treeline to provide further habitats for woodland edge dwellers. Meanwhile, marginal plants are being added to the banks of its stream to encourage waterside insects and other species.