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English Heritage trains new generation of scythers to maintain meadows and craft

The Guardian UK Thursday 17 September 2026, 04:00 UTC By Steven Morris 1 min read
Key Points

Initiative aims to keep alive age-old skill, and at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset improve habitat for rare shrill carder beeIt sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel: a merry band of men and women roaming the West Country cutting meadows by hand in exchange for hunks of bread and cheese. But the conservation charity English Heritage is recruiting a team of volunteer scythers to maintain 21st-century meadowland in the old-fashioned way.

Initiative aims to keep alive age-old skill, and at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset improve habitat for rare shrill carder bee

It sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel: a merry band of men and women roaming the West Country cutting meadows by hand in exchange for hunks of bread and cheese.

But the conservation charity English Heritage is recruiting a team of volunteer scythers to maintain 21st-century meadowland in the old-fashioned way.

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English Heritage (ORG) Muchelney Abbey (PERSON) Somerset (LOCATION) Thomas Hardy (PERSON) West Country (LOCATION)
Originally published by The Guardian UK Read original →

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