Prince Freddy's Meadows
Background
In November 2025, an amazing opportunity arose to purchase 900m of land along the Little Ouse in Blo' Norton, originally part of Blo' Norton Hall estate. This 27acre (11ha) area is another piece of the jigsaw helping to extend the wildlife corridor created by Little Ouse Headwaters Project (LOHP) westwards from Parkers Piece in Thelnetham, to Hopton, and secure it for posterity. Protecting over 2 miles of riverside habitat from the source of the Little Ouse to Broomscot Common.
Aerial view of riverside land in Blo' Norton © Strutt and Parker
The meadows are named after Prince Frederick Duleep Singh, who lived at Blo’ Norton Hall from 1909 to 1926. Prince Freddy was the son of Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire who was exiled to Britain and was befriended by Queen Victoria. Prince Freddy took a great interest in Blo’ Norton parish’ and became and remains a very popular figure. He was passionate about trees in the landscape and planted some magnificent avenues of lime trees as well as oak standards. This fascinating piece of land would also have been familiar to Virginia Woolf, who stayed at Blo’ Norton Hall in 1906, and who wrote affectionately of the area. She even swam in the river.
Conservation
The first impressions of the river frontage are how uneven it is, with rank vegetation at the eastern end among some high dry patches looking more like Breckland mixed in with low boggy areas and meadows and extending to the west into mixed closed-canopy woodland with no ground flora. The river has been modified at many levels over many years by local landowners trying to alleviate flooding or create walkways for stock, to wholesale river-channel straightening/deepening in the early 1900s. There is an old section of abandoned river parallel to the current main channel with huge potential for increasing biodiversity as well as a wooded area along the western end of the river with some impressive trees. This all leads to a very interesting topography with scope for carefully considered river and landscape restoration aimed at the long-term development of a biodiverse corridor for wildlife.
View across some of the riverside meadows © Ellie Beach
Wildlife already recorded includes otter, water voles, mandarin duck, kingfisher, roe deer and a herd of red deer, but it has the potential to be much richer.
Plans for the future
Water Vole © Arthur Rivett
Our vision for this area is to restore the meandering course of the old river by diverting the flow down the old river course, as well as enhancing the adjoining meadows, woodland and hedges for wildlife. We also want to bring the history of the area back to life.
This is by far the greatest challenge LOHP has taken on. The purchase of this unique area was only made possible by a short-term interest free loan of £120,000 from a benefactor and further fundraising will be essential to carry out much of this restoration.
Firstly, we will need to undertake initial baseline surveys of the land including surveys of levels, soil, vegetation, invertebrates and many other features, so we can see what is already there and what we have to do to enhance and restore it. Some surveys can be carried out by volunteers.
Donate today, to help us restore the habitat and wildlife of this neglected gem on the Little Ouse.
Donate Today at Just Giving Click Here
(you do not need to add a tip on Just Giving - simply select 'enter custom amount' and change the amount to zero)
Alternatively you can donate via our website www.lohp.org.uk/donate
Or
Send us a cheque payable to 'Little Ouse Headwaters Project' visit
www.lohp.org.uk/support-us for more details
Or
Contact us about paying by bank transfer
Access
There is currently no public access to Prince Freddy’s Meadows, but LOHP plans to provide access points where there are good views of the river as part of its plans to restore the site. Throughout the restoration we will run regular guided walks - check the Events page for details.