Initiative aims to keep alive age-old skill, and at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset improve habitat for rare shrill carder bee It sounds like something out of a Thomas Hardy novel: a merry band of men and women roaming the West Country cutting meadows by hand in exchange for hunks of bread and cheese...
Source: [Guardian World](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/17/english-heritage-trains-new-generation-of-scythers-to-maintain-meadows-and-craft)