Community & Services
Rhead’s Meadows
Together the vision was to create an exciting facility for the enjoyment of the local community and a haven for wildlife in the parish. It includes a native wild flower meadow interspersed with native trees, a new orchard and native woodland planting.
Accessibility is important and a mix of hard surfaced (I.e. bound gravel) and mown paths installed. A key principle is that the Meadows should retain an open quality and not be too manicured.
The farmland to the east of Blackfirs Lane and west of the Congleton Town Boundary was known on the old Cheshire Tithe Map as “common land” in the ancient Parish of Radnor. The Rhead family (wealthy Mill owners) and residents of Somerford bought
this prime agricultural land and Blackfirs Farm in 1952. Blackfirs Farm itself was later sold to Mrs Jean Crawford who is the current owner.
When Mrs Irene Lavinia Rhead died in 1997 she bequeathed the land – approximately twenty acres – to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It was her express wish as stated in her will that the land should be preserved and used for the benefit of wildlife and should not be built upon. The land formed a green open space separating urban Congleton from the more rural Parish of Somerford. When the land was handed over to the RSPB it was let out to a local farmer for winter feed crops.
In the Cheshire East Council’s Local Plan the land was marked as suitable for development despite local opposition. The RSPB wished to capitalize on its intrinsic value and put forward the land for development. However, after much local and national negative publicity the RSPB approached Somerford Parish Council with a view to gifting a significant proportion of the land (approximately nine acres) to the Council to create a wildflower meadow and community orchard.
This generous offer adheres to Mrs Rhead’s wishes and has been an excellent opportunity for Somerford Parish Council to create a fantastic communal green open space.
