The flags may have been taken down weeks ago and the bunting removed but inside the ancient walls of Barnard Castle, the impact of King Charles III’s Coronation impact is still being felt.
As part of the royal celebrations, English Heritage announced that wild meadows were to be created at 100 of its properties across the country - and Barnard Castle will be one of the first.
Preparations have begun to create a picture-perfect piece of English countryside within the old stone walls - the site selected being near the orchard, to the left of the castle’s main entrance.
English Heritage’s revered head of gardens, John Watkins, who came up with the idea, says he can’t wait to see the Barnard Castle beauty spot take shape and says the King should be applauded for helping drive the scheme forward.
“The environment has been a lifelong passion of the prince, now King, and the countryside could not have a better supporter,” said John.
“When Charles was prince he supported the creation of some 80 new meadows to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and we were delighted when he agreed to let us call our project The King’s meadows and gave us his full backing.”
The meadows being created are English hay meadows, which means a great many flowering plants might be found among native grasses including Ox-eye daisies, Yellow-rattle, plantains, docks, buttercups, vetches and clovers, dandelions, Selfheal, Lesser Knapweed, hawkbits, and cowslips.
At Barnard Castle though - just as in every other site up and down the land - the gardeners will use flowers, herbs and grasses that grow locally, so that the castle’s hay meadow will be one that local people from hundreds of years ago would have recognised.
As well as the sights and smells of a hay meadow, there’s also the sounds - butterflies and moths might be silent but there’s the buzz and noise of many insects, which attract birds including lapwings, curlews, yellow wagtails, and skylarks, while meadows with damp flushes may have snipe and redshanks.
“If we get that diversity back with the plants, then it will attract insects and the butterflies that then attracts the amphibians and the birds and other mammals," said John.
“The lark can sing again over a site that hasn’t had a lark on it … it’s that sort of thing about it which is, I think, wonderful.”
Wild meadows were once commonplace across the whole of England , but an estimated 97 per cent of meadows recorded in the 1930s, had been lost by the mid-1980s - largely through post-war farming practices.
English Heritage is carrying out its work in consultation with the RSPB and in partnership with charities Plantlife and Buglife, picking up on their expertise.
“Meadows don’t just spring up overnight,” said John, “This is a 10-year project but it will be so exciting to see its progress and the responses we’ve had to news of the project from countryside people has been fantastic; incredibly enthusiastic.”
Barnard Castle is one of the lucky ones to be first in line and the meadow will be designed, laid out, and planted by the English Heritage gardening team of paid staff and volunteers based at Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire.
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The same gardeners will eventually look to establish meadows in other English Heritage sites, including: In the North East - Hylton Castle in Sunderland, Heddon-on-the-Wall, Prudhoe Castle; and in North Yorkshire - Richmond Castle, Easby Abbey, Gisborough Hall, Whitby Abbey and Mount Grace Priory itself.
By the time the project is completed nationwide, visitors to some of England’s most historic sites will have the added attraction of being able to sniff the heady bouquet of a traditional hay meadow.
But visitors to Barnard Castle will have the privilege of being able to drink in the new vintage first.
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