A Wiltshire monument is among 100 sites of importance which will benefit from a natural legacy as part of the King’s coronation in May.

As part of a restoration plan to restore the country's lost flower-rich gardens in a tribute to King Charles's love of nature, Stonehenge will have a flower meadow that will benefit wildlife.  

Since the 1930s, 97 per cent of meadows have completely disappeared leaving only fragments unprotected. 

English Heritage’s chief executive, Kate Mavor, said: “The King’s coronation is a significant moment in history, and we wanted to mark it in a meaningful way, in a way that combines two of His Majesty’s passions – nature and heritage."

At Stonehenge, a new field of wildflowers is planned for outside the visitor centre to greet people as they arrive.

On the banks of the monument, there is already a county wildlife site, with flowers such as orchids found near to the stones.

Kate Mavor said: “We’re creating more natural spaces at the heart of our historic properties, ensuring that wildflowers and wildlife can flourish there once again, and helping our visitors to step back into history and experience something with which the sites’ historic occupants would have been familiar.”

“In a decade’s time, our coronation pledge will be an inspiring legacy of established, restored and new meadows at 100 of our historic sites – big and small – right across England.”

English Heritage will source seeds from existing meadows to ensure viable, local species of wildflower are introduced to each site.

75 of the 100 meadows will be new but 25 are existing meadows which will be developed.

King Charles is known to be a passionate gardener and committed to organic farming. He has long campaigned against climate change and understands the importance of biodiversity.

Plantlife is a charity dedicated to saving wild plants and fungi and is partnering with English Heritage to offer resources and skills.

The charity’s chief executive, Ian Dunn, said: “The project offered a lifeline to a hundred key grassland sites and their associated wildlife. It focuses on a chapter of English natural history lost and all but forgotten”.

As part of the Coronation project, English Heritage chose locations to include 43 castles and forts, 22 abbeys and priories and 10 historic houses.

The sites include The Jewel Tower near the Palace of Westminster, a lawned area which was formerly a part of the Palace Garden which has been overseeded with wildflowers to create a new native species-rich meadow in central London.

A new meadow will be established at the gothic ruins of Whitby Abbey and the existing meadows at Tintagel will be diversified.