A TRIAL is about to start aimed at increasing the variety of wildflowers on Ludlow’s Whitcliffe Common.

Four years ago the Friends of Whitcliffe Common and Shropshire Wildlife Trust took the first step to increasing the diversity of the common by spreading hay from a wildlife meadow which has proved quite successful.

There has been a marked increase in the variety of wildflowers on Whitcliffe including such species as wild orchids and yellow rattle.

Now the two organisations are to run a trial project with a Little Hereford firm which it is hoped will produce good results.

Four small plots on the common will see the grass cut and put to one side, soil rotovated, raked and then cultivated. Hay and seed will be spread and rolled in.

“We think this will be an interesting trial and are hopeful that it will be successful,” said Daphne Jones, chairman of the Friends of Whitcliffe Common.

Soil samples have already been taken to assess ground conditions so the actual trial should begin quite soon.”

The trial will be paid for from the Tesco grant voted for by the public. Improvement of the variety of wildflowers on the common was part of the application.