After a big downpour on Friday night, the open days saw welcome sunshine on Saturday and Sunday, although there was still a spring nip to the air. Every visitor who joined us over the weekend showed great respect and stuck to the paths around the outside of the meadow while gaining close-up views of the thousands of flowers.

We served over 200 cream teas, which went down a treat - an added enjoyment to the snakes-head fritillaries.

Fox Fritillary meadow was bequeathed to Suffolk Wildlife Trust in 1977 by the then owner, Mrs Fox, who understood the meadow’s importance and wanted to safeguard it into the future. It is wonderful that Mrs Fox’s relatives still visit the meadow on the open days every year, some remember playing in it as children.

Over sixty years ago, in 1957, the meadow was sprayed with a herbicide with the well-meaning intention of benefitting the fritillaries, which it did, but it wiped out most of the other wildflowers. Some species are gradually returning, but the legacy of spraying means that the meadow is not as floristically diverse as it might otherwise have been. Today, the fritillaries put on an amazing show every April, peppered with purple, broken with the occasional, white-flowered albino form. They are a joy to witness in such profusion.

Although owned and managed by the Trust, we do not have public access to the meadow, or any form of carparking, so a big thank you to the surrounding landowners who allow us to show visitors this special site once a year when the flowers are at their best.

All of us at Suffolk Wildlife Trust also want to say a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers – we couldn’t put on an event such as this without them.

The meadow will be open again for bookings next year. All funds raised help us with our vital conservation work. Keep an eye on our What’s On pages for more details from early 2024.

Fox Fritillary Meadow reserve page