Flackwild Heath

Flackwild Heath is a community project which began through the keen endeavours of local people lead by Marcus Firmin with the creation of 3 wildflower meadow patches on Green Dragon Lane in 2018.  This has grown to nearly 30 patches of seeds sown across the village.  The Flackwild Heath Facebook page is full of updates and well worth a look.

The project has stepped up a gear in 2024.   In October we kicked off the project spending two days with over 40 people at Orchard Green (Chepping Wycombe Parish Council site) and the verge & corner of Green Dragon Lane and Chapman Lane.  We crown lifted the trees to make the site more open and improve visibility through and allow more sunlight into the area. We have chipped the branches ready to mulch the hedgerows when we plant them in Tree Week. 

The grass got cut and raked several times to remove the years of thatch and expose some soil then wildflower seeds (meadow perennials, cornfield annuals and yellow rattle) were sown. We neatened the paths and kerbsides which had become overgrown by over a foot in some places!

We are partnering with the residents of Flackwell Heath and have much needed funding from Chepping Wycombe Parish Council and Buckinghamshire Council’s community board – thank you!   This funding will allow us to bring more areas into the Flackwild scheme. Thanks too to Flackwell Heath Residents Association for a donation to bring it all together.

Our aim is to work with lots of local groups and schools and hopefully in time secure more funding to spread to other green spaces in Flackwell and through out the parish including Tylers Green & Loudwater.

There will be verges and green spaces left for wildflowers and the wildlife they support but we will be working with the parish and unitary council to ensure road splays are visible and they place looks neater in places but retains wild spaces too.

We will be making and installing boxes for bats, owls and a range of small birds too. We will be planting native hedgerows and wildflower areas – cutting and raking in autumn and sending the arisings to make compost at High Heavens. Then sowing yellow rattle seed to reduce the vigorous grasses and allowing the wildflowers to proliferate.

We will be inviting local people to our wildflower nursery in Hammersley Lane Tylers Green to help nurture plants to be planted out.  In addition if you would like to volunteer at our nursery or buy some plants and seeds, then please get in touch, we would love to hear from you – info@chilternrangers.co.uk.