PRINCE Charles was in Cirencester yesterday visiting Daneway Banks nature reserve, where he met Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison, president of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT).

In March, following a funding appeal, the trust became owners of the reserve, purchasing the land from Countess Bathurst, with the Prince of Wales’ Charitable Foundation making a significant donation.

A patron of GWT, the prince, who first heard of the appeal thanks to an article in the Standard, was greeted by various members of the trust, as well as the Royal Entomological Society (RES), and members of the Large Blue Butterfly project, before touring some of the 38 acre site, learning about the ongoing conservation work and then unveiling a commemorative plaque to mark his visit at the nearby Daneway Inn.

The reserve contains a plethora of rare species of plants and insects and has been managed by GWT under lease since 1968.

Following the acquisition, GWT has been working closely with RES, with the partnership aiming to bring together practical conservation with the scientific expertise of the UK’s leading entomologists.

Ms Harrison, before the unveiling, said: “Today marks the collaboration between GWT and RES, who will co-own the site with us. They will be carrying out some research on the invertebrates here and we’re hoping to learn a lot from them.

“The appeal to buy Daneway Banks was by far and away the most successful appeal that GWT has ever had. It absolutely blew our minds. It’s thanks to the generosity of our supporters and our friends and donors, while a very special thanks goes to HRH, who has been patron of the Wildlife Trust since 1977 and who is a real crusader for the natural world and a great supporter of it.”

The large blue butterfly, which became extinct in the UK in the 1950s was reintroduced into Daneway Banks in 2000 using stock collected from Scandinavia.

The recent combination of grazing and scrub clearance has produced the perfect conditions at the reserve, and the abundance of wild thyme and presence of the red ant, both critical to its complex life cycle, has ensured that the rare butterfly has thrived on the site.

Prince Charles, in a short speech from the pub’s terrace, said: “It’s a remarkable example of how so many people are mindful about these sorts of places and our dwindling wildlife. With something like the large blue butterfly it is absolutely vital to have the right symbiotic relationships.

“I could not be more grateful to those other donors to make this possible and all the volunteers who helped to do all the work, not only here but at so many of the other sites of the GWT.

“Apart from anything else, I think the great interest today has been being able to speak to the real experts, the entomologists and the lepidopterists who inevitably are utterly fascinated by the lifecycle of these remarkable butterflies.

“I always wonder whether people really understand sometimes how important it is to get the right combination of management regime in order to achieve the kind of biodiversity that we want.

“We owe in so many ways to the wildlife trusts and all these organisations that battle away.

“I could not be more grateful and nothing would give me more pleasure than to unveil this plaque,” he added.

The plaque will be placed on a special bench on the nature trail which has carved into it the lifecycle of the large blue butterfly.

Roger Mortlock, chief exec of GWT, had acted as a tour guide for HRH on the nature trail, alongside Ms Harrison and Professor Jeremy Thomas, chairman of RES.

Asked about the concept of creating corridors between GWT sites across the county, Mr Mortlock, speaking at the event, said: “Effectively wildlife don’t realise they’ve got to the end of a nature reserve.

“If you’re not careful nature reserves can be prisons, and if you want nature populations to grow and to move through nature, you need to be able to think about not just making the nature reserve as good as it can be, I think you also need to think about what connects the nature reserve.

“We talked about haloing our reserves and we talk about coridooring between reserves. In this valley, really good example, we manage the Bathurst estate but we’ve also got good relationships with all the landowners right the way through this valley, and that’s really important because it means large blue butterflies don’t just stick on our site, they populated our neighbour just over the road. You can’t just work on your own lines, you’ve got to work with everybody else.”

Visit gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/reserves/daneway-banks for more information.