Rebecca Chesney
I May Never See You Hospitalfield, Scotland 2024/2025
Hospitalfield House and Gardens is located in Arbroath in Scotland. As Art and Horticulture Artist in Residence in 2024 I spent my time on site documenting insect species and the plants they were feeding on throughout the gardens and surrounding grounds.
Above: studio view with drawings and sound equipment 2024
Above: L-R Ruby tailed wasp; Buff tail bumblebee; Hairy shieldbug; Meadow brown butterfly
Above: moth trapping event at Hospitalfield with Buglife in September 2024 (photo above right G Renshaw)
Following on from this time on site I am developing a project I May Never See You to create a Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) seed bank. Kidney vetch is the sole food plant for the Small Blue butterfly caterpillar Cupido minimus, a scarce butterfly with small colonies found along the coast in Angus. Kidney Vetch grows along the coast, but with habitat loss and coastal erosion any threats to Kidney Vetch have a direct effect on the small blue butterfly.
I am growing Kidney Vetch in the walled garden at Hospitalfield to collect the seeds to give / distribute to sites along the coast nearby to encourage and support the butterfly colonies.
I will also be looking for volunteer growers in the area too in 2026 - to grow a kidney vetch plant, collect the seeds and add them to the seed bank. Collectively we will become advocates for the plant and guardians of the butterfly in the hope we can help to stop the decline in its numbers.
Above: growing kidney vetch at Hospitafield
Pollinator Corridor 2025 onwards
In parallel to the planting of the Kidney Vetch seed bank, I worked with Joseph Burns (gardener), Kristina Aburrow (Community Coordinator) alongside a dedicated group of volunteers to develop an L-shaped strip of Hospitalfield’s land into a corridor for pollinators and wildlife to share with the community. It is a threshold or piece of land at ‘the edge’, left behind when parts of the estate were sold for housing. Over the next months and years the hope is to see this space transformed to form a place for pollinating insects and birds with wildflowers and early flowering trees and shrubs, and become a place to enjoy for the surrounding neighbours and community.
Above: the pollinator corridor before development in early spring 2025
Above: volunteers helping to dig over, weed and plant seeds for the pollinator corridor in spring 2025
Above: some of the flowers starting to come up on the pollinator corridor in July 2025 (photo above right R Foreman)
Hospitalfield
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