You may already have read a recent press release from the National Trust regarding the future of cows grazing on Petersham Meadow, but if not, you will be pleased to hear that considerable progress has been made in safeguarding the future of grazing cattle on the Meadow.

As many of you know, during April 2011, there was an incident when a dangerous dog attacked a cow in Petersham Meadow and this received wide publicity in the press. Fortunately, the cow was not badly injured. The National Trust in assessing the incident judged that maintaining cows in the meadow presented a great risk to dogs and their owners if they reacted to approaching dogs and that this could result in the Trust being open to claims by dog owners if their dogs were harmed in an incident. The Trust responded by fencing the cows in a restricted area of the meadows on the basis that they would be less likely to be a provocation to dogs running freely in the meadows.

This action led to a great sense of dismay locally as seeing the cattle grazing freely in the meadows is a valued amenity and it was thought that the fencing was not in keeping with the world famous view from Richmond Hill. As you will know the Petersham Trust was set up by the late Chris Brasher to keep cows on the meadows, and the National Trust was funded by a very generous endowment which many of you contributed to in order to do just that!

After lengthy discussions, in which the Ham and Petersham Association  were pleased to be involved, the National Trust and Richmond Council have agreed to ban dogs from the meadows whilst cows are grazing i.e. from April to beginning November. Signs banning dogs and giving an explanation will be in place at all 5 entrances to the meadows in good time for the arrival of next years cows. We are very pleased that from 2012 the cows will be allowed to graze freely with no fence restriction, as they have done for hundreds of years, and without the fear of further dog attacks.

Anne Powell

Chair Ham and Petersham Association