Diggers move in on Alveley's Severn Valley Country Park meadow site
Work has begun on a £10,000 scheme to improve one of Shropshire's best known beauty spots.
Diggers and workmen descended on the Severn Valley Country Park, in Alveley, near Bridgnorth, this week.
The project, which is expected to take two weeks, is to install bridleways, gates, fencing and to create a hay meadow, and is funded by a grant won by a group of volunteers keen to protect endangered species at the site.
The Severn Valley Supporters Group, which meets each week at the park, netted the cash from The Big Lottery Fund's Awards For All scheme, to help restore a former colliery coal-spoil field in to a traditional hay meadow.
Senior Ranger Ed Andrews said the work would hopefully bring back skylarks that had been unable to survive at the park for a number of years.
He said: "The work will include transforming an old coal-spoil pit into a hay meadow.
"To do that we need to make the area safe so we're stalling new fencing, bridleways and kissing gates.
"There will also be a new area for people to walk their dogs. The conservation will see wild flowers grown and we're hoping to introduce sky larks to the area.
"Our records show they used to live in the fields but they haven't been suitable for a number of years. We're hoping to get them nesting again.
"We're hoping to have it done within a couple of weeks."
Bill Watkins, a member of the supporters group, said since the late 1940s, 98 per cent of traditionally managed hay meadows had been lost in Britain and as a result many species of flowers and insects had declined.
He said: "It is hoped that this will help to restore some colour and insect life to our countryside."
By James Fisher
