Work parties on the Common will end soon for the season, to allow the wildlife to manage itself during the summer. Please contact the Commons Management Committee if you are considering any work adjacent to your property, since it needs to fit in with the plan approved by the Parish Council. We may do some occasional work later in the summer to manage any specific problem that might occur or, for instance, to discourage some of the invasive plants and therefore encourage diversity of others.
(But please don’t use the Common as a place to discard garden waste. We have occasionally noticed this happening and it can cause us problems with potentially invasive garden plants.)
Gorse—A plant for all seasons
For some time now we have been trying, against the grazing of rabbits and browsing of deer, to encourage the spread of gorse on the Common. It is a good plant as it has a lot of value for wildlife, as well as flowering in all months so providing a little bright colour all through the year. It shouldn’t be difficult to do so as it germinates easily but it does need protection from the browsers and grazers.
The Common is not a large area where we can have dominance of one or two species but we’d like one good sized area of gorse as it is excellent for the shelter and protection of several species of small birds.
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We have replaced three bridges with wire netting surfaces as well as netting another as it had become very slimy slippery.
When the bridge over the ditch on Barracks Hill (opposite Littlelands) was prized out of the bank to be replaced by a new one, a 4 inch long crayfish (pictured above) was found under its end.