{"id":24,"date":"2008-03-24T22:48:38","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T22:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ducklingtonchurch.wordpress.com\/24\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T12:33:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T11:33:27","slug":"fritillary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/?page_id=24","title":{"rendered":"Fritillary Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
\u00a9 Gemma Hardie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fritillary Sunday will be held on <\/em>Sunday 19th April 2026<\/strong>.  Take a look here<\/a> for more details.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Ducklington Village from 11am.
\nVisit the Fritillary Field for a talk about the field and enjoy a range of other activities throughout the day.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Music in the Church
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/span>Tower Visits
\nGifts Morris Dancing
\nArts and crafts for all
\nRefreshments Raffle
\nPlant Stall Cream Teas
\nPloughman\u2019s Lunches<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You can view the day’s timetable shortly<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Snake’s Head Fritillary (L. Fritillaria meleagris) grows in abundance in a meadow near the church. On one day each year this field is opened to the general public and visitors are warmly invited to walk among the beautiful flowers. The church is open for you to look around: there are lots of activities including Morris dancing and musical interludes: there is a plant stall and the chance to enjoy a cream tea or ploughman’s lunch in the village hall.<\/p>\n

You can read about the background to Fritillary Sunday here<\/a><\/p>\n

You can buy Fritillary products on Fritillary Sunday.<\/p>\n

RECENT HISTORY<\/h2>\n

Before the last war the ‘Fritillary’ was a common sight in the river meadows around Ducklington. However the drive for food production during the war years meant the ploughing up of most river meadows and here the river was also dredged. This one field was saved from the plough and managed to survive albeit with only a few of the plants left.<\/p>\n

About 30 years ago the field was bought by the Peel family who then lived in the village with the sole aim of conserving it as a natural meadow and of course to protect the ‘Fritillary’.<\/p>\n

DUCKLINGTON MEAD<\/h2>\n

The field is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and registered with Natural England (no. 1002036). The field is let to a local farmer with the condition that it should be sympathetically and traditionally farmed. The normal programme for this is that it is left vacant from 1st of March to the 1st of July and then, when all the seeds have dropped, a crop of hay is taken. After that it can be grazed through until Christmas or a bit later if the weather is dry. It is also a condition that no fertilizers or chemicals are used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fritillary Sunday will be held on Sunday 19th April 2026.  Take a look here for more details. Ducklington Village from 11am. Visit the Fritillary Field for a talk about the field and enjoy a range of other activities throughout the day. Music in the Church Tower Visits Gifts Morris Dancing Arts and crafts for all Refreshments Raffle Plant Stall Cream Teas Ploughman\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30098,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-24","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":65,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30532,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24\/revisions\/30532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ducklingtonchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}