Sensory gardens, wildflowers meadows and river restoration are just some of the exciting changes happening to this town that sits beside the River Coln.
The Wild Towns project will improve access to green spaces through the installation of accessible paths and a sensory garden. We're also improving biodiversity through the planting of wildflowers and management of water ways for species such as otter, kingfisher and water voles.
Sensory garden
Our partners FWAG have been busy designing and creating a sensory garden on the Walnut Tree Field in the centre of the town. This will be maintained with the help of the school who have received a lot of tools from the project to help them with the gardening.
Sensory garden with raised beds and wildflower area starting to grow in the background.
New carved bench with insect theme in the sensory garden area.
Wildflower areas
Dotted around the town, the project has created very warmly-received wildflower areas. These have added colour and beauty for people and food sources for insects, helping Fairford’s aspirations to be a “BEE” town.
Wild flower meadow, Corn cockle, Corn flower, Centaurea montana, Agrostemma githago, Poppy, Papaver rhoeas, Sheffield - Paul Hobson
Riverbank restoration
Sections of the River Colns bank have been heavily eroded over time.
As part of the work on the river walk path, our project partners, The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), and their volunteers have carried out some riverbank restoration. This involved fixing hazel stem bundles, known as faggots, along eroded sections and then fixing planted coir rolls on top. Coir rolls are natural fibre rolls planted with river bank species. These provide a growing platform and gives the vegetation a head start.
Over time, the slow flowing water behind the coir rolls will deposit material and create a protective buffer on the edge of the river. This vegetated margin of a river provides important food sources and refuge for species such as water voles which call this section of the River Coln home.
Listen out as you walk along the river walk for a 'plop' noise as water voles dive into the water.
Diggers and ditches
On the northern boundary of Fairford, there is a ditch which carries water around the town and down to the River Coln. Over time this ditch has become overgrown and silted up and had been identified by FWAG’s WILD project as one that needed attention.
Through collaboration with the Ernest Cook Trust and Fairford Town Council, GWT employed Kingcombe-Stonbury to carry out some much-needed maintenance through the winter months. This has involved clearing some fallen trees and overgrown brambles from long sections of the ditch as well as using a digger to remove unwanted silt to allow the water to flow unrestricted along the ditch around Fairford, increasing the town’s flood resilience.
Find out more about a circular accessibility path that was installed along an idyllic stretch of the River Coln in 2019, with Aaron Barnes.