St Peter's Keys

The cowslip has several local names including 'Keys of Heaven' and 'St Peter's Keys' as they look like a bunch of keys. According to a legend St Peter discovered that people were trying to enter Heaven by the back gate instead of through the front gate for which he held the keys. He was so upset that he dropped the keys and when they fell to earth they took root and cowslips began to grow.

The name 'cowslip' is derived from the fact that they often grew in areas where the cows had a slup!

Until fairly recently, before the widespread use of herbicides and intensification of agriculture, cowslips were quite common in fields and picked for celebrations on the Sunday after May Day. Now they can be seen increasingly on the embankments of new roads where a wildflower mixture has been spread and are an attractive sight on roadside verges providing a welcome supply of food for bees and insects.

It was very difficult to get a good image of the cowslips because the wind was blowing them too much.