Peddars Meadow project at Ringstead in north Norfolk

So say members of a group which has done just that on the edge of their coastal community.

Hanneke Robson rented land beside the ancient Peddars Way on the outskirts of Ringstead, near Hunstanton four years ago and formed the Peddars Meadow group to help care for it.

Hanneke Robson on part of the meadow at Ringstead (Image: Chris Bishop)

The plot has undergone a transformation in just two years, after it was cleared and reseeded with a mix of native flora.

"We sowed it two years ago in May," said Mrs Robson. "We sowed a chalk land mixture because this was originally a chalk meadow, so we could only sow what would have been here in the first place.

"This piece of ground was dead before - all you saw was gravel and bindweed." 

Ox-eye daisies carpet the meadow (Image: Chris Bishop)

While a carpet of ox-eye daisies now adds snow-coloured contrast to the green slope, with its view to the distant church, species including different grasses, wild coriander, bugloss, red clover and bee orchids are already thriving, along with insects.

Friend Linden Bevan, 81, a keen conservationist and gardener who lives nearby, became involved soon after the project began.

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"I needed to find something or other to do and then I heard about this from a mutual friend," she said.

Linden Bevan picks her way through the taller grass looking for rare meadow flowers (Image: Chris Bishop)

"In the 1960s, when I was growing up, you could walk up the garden path and clouds of butterflies would fly up, there were cuckoos calling, there were owls flying about."

Life is very different for those growing up in vast swathes of our countryside today.

Some 98pc of our native meadows have been lost to intensive farming since the 1930s, with once common plants in steep decline, along with pollinators and many species of birds.

A dainty bee orchid flowering on the meadow (Image: Chris Bishop)

Mrs Robson was inspired to plant a meadow after she settled in the village with her husband Derek in 2018, after spending years travelling around the country in a camper van.

She spoke to farmers along the way about how the pressure to continually maximise production had seen the loss of set-aside land and field margins which provided vital space for nature.

And after the road eventually led the couple to Ringstead, Mrs Robson began wondering whether she could adopt an acre of land to restore from the ground up, and whether other communities could be inspired to do the same.

Ox-eye daisies flourish on the meadow (Image: Chris Bishop)

"England boasts over 30,000 villages and this could have a huge environmental impact," she said.

"What we need next is to twin with another village, and then another and so on."

Argus Hardy, one of the founders of Wildeast, which aims to return land across East Anglia to nature, agrees.

Hanneke Robson (left) and Linden Bevan explore the meadow (Image: Chris Bishop)

"This is such a simple and beautiful idea which would be exciting to see repeated across the region as part of a wilder, wetter and woodier east," he said.

"It is just this sort of vision we want to celebrate and to encourage others to follow."

Anyone interested can e-mail hanneke@thegaragestudionorfolk.co.uk.

Hanneke Robson inside The Garage Studio at Ringstead (Image: Chris Bishop)

Like so many things, there is money involved. Renting the Ringstead meadow costs £300 a year, while there are extra costs such as mowing and other maintenance on top.

Mrs Robson turned to one of her other loves to help come up with the funding, opening an art gallery in the garage of her home on the Docking Road, called The Garage Studio.

Instead of going to the business, the gallery's commission is ploughed into the meadow project.

Hanneke Robson and Linden Bevan, with a flyer promoting the art exhibition to raise money for the meadow (Image: Chris Bishop)

The Garage is putting on a major exhibition featuring the work of 12 artists at Ringstead Village Hall from June 22 - 30 (10am - 5pm), with all proceeds going towards the upkeep of the meadow.

The Coastline Art Show will focus on the coast between King's Lynn and Cromer, featuring the work of Jeremy Bevan, Paul Butterworth, Liz James, Alan Pearl, Bella Bigsby, Deanee Clark, Ben Kendall, Frances Brittain, Liz Hadley, Nicky Mansfield and Hanneke Robson.