Norley Wildflower Memorial Walk

INTRODUCTION

Along this three mile walk there are 12 plaques in honoured and grateful memory for the Norley men who gave their lives in the Great War. In season, you’ll also see many flowers and often butterflies and bees pollinating them. An enjoyable albeit thoughtful 2 hour ramble around our beautiful village, it’s often rather muddy in places so you’ll need sensible shoes/boots.

In the eight years since the walk’s inception the hoped for benefits for the village have been more than realised:-

• Recognition of the sacrifice the men made and restoring an environment which would have been dear to them
• Improved sense of community by bringing people of all ages to work together and of the ownership of hitherto unregarded uncultivated places
• An increase in “healthy” walking and providing an opportunity for people to stand and stare and appreciate the beauty of wild flowers and wildlife
• An improvement in keeping the village free from litter
• Improvement in biodiversity from more opportunities for pollinating insects, and focus on their essential needs
• Help to change land management to improve pollinators’ access to habitat and essential resources such as road verges joining all the “Plaque dots” along the walk
• Provide educational opportunities such as making bee/nest/bat boxes and the gathering, and sowing of seed
• And last but certainly not least – providing additional customers for the businesses in Norley, the route goes past the Tigers Head, The Stores the Fortune Palace and The Carriers.

Fundamentally the walk has made a reality of the phrase “In honoured and grateful memory” which is on the brass plaque at St John’s, 88 Norley men went to War over a 100 years ago only 78 came back, none unchanged and one Chris Fletcher, dying in 1920 from his wounds sustained in 1916.  Inspired by a talk given by Richard Scott the Director of the National wildflower Centre, NWG could envisage the transformation of barren verges/wastelands into beautiful carpets of flowers alive with insects. The poems “Break of day in the Trenches”  “Poppies whose roots are in men’s veins Drop and are ever dropping But mine in my ear is safe Just a little white with the dust” and In Flanders Fields “where the poppies blow between the crosses row on row” it says they, “lived, felt dawn saw sunset glow, loved and were loved” convinced us to put in memorial plaques where possible close to where these men once lived, surrounded by wildflowers, poppies in remembrance of course but also flowers familiar to them when they too walked around the village.

See The Bees – a short film about Pollinators and the Wildflower Memorial walk https://vimeo.com/173359896

The guide with information about the men was produced and the wonderful map was created by Ann Crawford. The poem “In Memoriam” by Edward Thomas encapsulates the whole theme and the map literally so. “The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood This Eastertide call into mind the men Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts Should have gathered them and will do never again”.

Richard Holmes the Military historian, himself now sadly passed away said “As we are now, so once were they: as they now are, so must we be. Let us remember them all, not with bravado or bombast but with the respect that their sacrifice demands”.

At the Inaugural Service for the walk, the Reverend Sue Levitt gave a thoughtful, encouraging and ultimately challenging sermon on the need to remember and said in conclusion: “Such memories can also do more than just give us an opportunity to be encouraged by what they meant to us, they can also encourage and perhaps even challenge us by remembering their impact on our life. So as we walk the walk – let’s think about how life might have been if it had not been for what they and many others did for us, for our freedom, for our peace?

Over the years the walk therefore has always been a thoughtful one made more so by the Tommy now on guard in St John’s churchyard. On Remembrance Sunday there is a service when wreaths are laid there, followed by a walk when poppy crosses are placed at each of the Plaque stations. Tommy’s memorial tablet has the last verse of Lyn Pegler’s poem “Voices of the Norley Fallen,” Yes, mourn our loss as you stroll the lanes, And smell the poppies red with blood. Give thanks for your lives, the peace we brought and fight each day with warrior words for war to cease.”

But the walk has also and hopefully will continue to bring joy on seeing the flowers and their pollinators such as bumblebees and butterflies. The flowery “Plaque dots” are spilling out too, so the landscape familiar to these men is gradually being restored to life in honoured and grateful memory.

You can read the suggested order for the Wildflower Walk here >