Leaving a lasting environmental legacy

October 3^rd 2025

Singer Instruments’ partnership with the Sowing the Seeds initiative

Exmoor Ponies are helping a National Park-based scientific instrument manufacturer create a lasting environmental legacy.

Singer Instruments, headquartered in the village of Roadwater, are one of 59 sites working in partnership with the Sowing the Seeds initiative to create new wildflower meadows across Exmoor.

Lucy Cornish, Sowing the Seeds Project Officer said “‘Wildflower meadows are habitats rich in wildlife. They are grasslands that were traditionally managed for hay so left to grow and flower over the spring and summer, feeding and sheltering a wide array of wildlife, but most of these habitats have been lost in the landscape. Since 2021, Exmoor National Park Authority has been running a project called ‘Sowing the Seeds’, working with landowners, farmers, community groups, schools, and parish councils, to create, restore, and promote wildflower meadows and habitats across the National Park. We are working with communities to restore this rare habitat and make more wildflower areas that will in time join up to create a thriving nature network, where wildlife can flourish.”

Singer Instruments makes robotics to accelerate research for biologists who are making the world a cleaner, greener, healthier place. Their global customer base are harnessing nature, finding or engineering new microbial organisms to tackle some of humanity’s greatest challenges.

CEO Harry Singer said “Humanity needs biology now, more than ever! We’re super proud to be making a global impact in this regard, as well as a local impact by creating our own wildflower meadow. Thanks very much to Exmoor National Park Authority for driving this initiative!”

A successful grant application to the Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund in 2023 funded the re-fencing of the field before Exmoor Ponies were introduced.  

Pony owners Lloyd and Gemma Parry said “Exmoor Ponies are mentioned in the Doomsday Book and are renowned worldwide for their hardiness and skilled conservation grazing. The current three. Ambrose, Megs Mary, and Hazel  were born on Dunkery in the Tawbitts herd, bred by the late Jackie Ablett and Gill Langdon. The ponies keep the grass in check, eat through brambles and scrub, provide fertilizer for the seeds, and get a workout in the steep field in the process.”

Wildflower seeds harvested from donor sites were sown by staff once the ponies had grazed the meadow in the first year, with top-up seeds being sown in the second year too.

Health, Safety and Environment Manager for Singer Instruments, Sally Parish said “The meadow is now in year three of a five year management plan and already there has been an improvement in the variety and cover of flora. More Exmoor Pony visits will be required in the years to come which we look forward to as they give us a warm welcome in the mornings, hanging their heads over the gate to see what’s going on.”