Malvern Hills Conservators

A Vision for Castlemorton Common

Vision Statement

To maintain Castlemorton Common as a area of special landscape and wildlife value which can be enjoyed by local people and visitors as an area for quiet recreation, whilst enabling those with common rights to utilise the common as part of their farming practice in a viable and sustainable manner.

INTRODUCTION

Castlemorton Common has been an important part of local life for centuries, particularly by those farmers who have exercised their rights of common to graze livestock and to take the fern and underwood. Commoners have created the landscape that local people and visitors alike appreciate and use frequently, evolving over time in line with grazing practice at that particular time. Today, grazing such unimproved and unproductive pasture, allied to the additional problems of cars and dogs, has resulted in few local people with common rights actually exercising them. In the Commons Register there are approximately a hundred registered commoners with rights to graze, but in reality there are only seven actively grazing on the common.

Due to the common being undergrazed in the last 30-40 years trees and scrub have grown in place of the once open grassland. Maintaining the common as completely open is unrealistic and undesirable, but without some form of active intervention the current levels of grazing are insufficient to prevent more tree and shrub growth and the recognisable landscape of the common would be significantly altered. A substantial part of the common has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) recognised for its nationally important wildlife value, most of which is associated with open grassland. The SSSI is rather different from other parts of the common in that it was not ploughed during the war and has the largest areas of gorse, bramble and hawthorn scrub, areas of deciduous mixed scrub which is rapidly developing into woodland, and marshy wetlands and streams. Although the SSSI is particularly interesting in regard to nature conservation, considerable conservation interest lies in the common as a whole.

The common is also a very important recreational resource for local people and visitors to the area. The open nature and landscape setting of the common make it a desirable location for walking, horse-riding and other informal recreational activities. However, the openness of the common is threatened by the encroachment of scrub and trees, making access more difficult as well as restricting livestock access to narrow routes which become very churned up and muddy.

It is in the interests of all those with a respect for the common to work towards an appropriate management regime. This vision aims to balance the needs of the public with those of grazing by commoners and wildlife and landscape considerations.

To determine a vision we need to clarify what gives the common its value and what detracts from that value.

Values:

1. Open grassland with scattered shrubs and trees;
2. Grazing by commoners;
3. Open public access;
4. Its quiet and apparent wildness;
5. The nationally important wildlife (e.g. birds, wild flowers, butterflies);
6. Open grassland available for informal recreation;
7. The old willow and black poplar pollards.

Detractions:

1. Encroachment of trees and scrub and loss of open grassland;
2. Livestock causing churning up of the ground and wet muddy areas;
3. Lack of restrictions on car parking on the common;
4. The problem of stock wandering off the common onto the roads and into the villages;
5. Dog worrying of stock;
6. An increase in the area of rough grassland and an accompanying decrease in the area of short-grazed grassland;

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THE VISION

Grazing

Grazing is the most appropriate form of management for several reasons - it perpetuates the historic management; it provides a living (or part of their living) for some commoners; it best provides the conditions required by the wildlife of the common; and grazing in its own right is a landscape and visitor attraction. It is desirable to continue to encourage commoners to exercise common rights of grazing, with emphasis given to the late summer and autumn periods. A grazing regime of approximately 1 cow per hectare in summer, 3 sheep per hectare all year is deemed to be a suitable grazing level - currently grazing is estimated at around 0.6 cow per ha (winter) and 1.0 sheep per hectare all year. All efforts will be made to encourage common rights holders to graze the common, but if this proves insufficient to sustain the desired state then other local graziers can be licensed to graze by the Malvern Hills Conservators.

The problems currently experienced on the common by livestock churning it up, is the winter grazing of cattle which are concentrated in certain areas by supplementary feeding in order to prevent them wandering into the villages. This may give the misguided impression that the common is overgrazed.

Landscape

As mentioned above, the common was likely to have been completely open in the past. The current large extent of self-seeded trees and scrub has developed because of a reduction in grazing pressure. It is the open habitats that are the most special for wildlife on the common.

However the scrub has a high interest, especially for birds. Many of the species breeding on the common are now nationally in steep decline, including yellowhammer, linnet, turtle dove and grasshopper warbler. Therefore some scrub needs to be retained. An appropriate balance to be aimed for would be 90% open area and 10% scrub as an average across the common.

The trees on the common are less beneficial to the wildlife of open habitats, and there is an increasing number of ash and oak trees seeding in (encouraged both by the lessened grazing and dense scrub patches in which to develop). Attempts will be made to remove all ash trees from the common because of their rapid growth and development and high seed production. The same argument could be made for oaks, but a few feature trees would be kept to provide shade for stock and for landscape reasons.

The most appropriate trees for the open areas of the common are the old pollard willow and black poplar, which have historically been part of the common. In addition, they do not encroach onto the open grassland like other tree species. The Conservators have acted to maintain a pollarding regime to retain these trees and replace them when necessary and will continue to do so.

People

The common has been an important recreation resource for many years, particularly for local people. The use of the Hills and Commons for quiet, informal forms of recreation has always been fundamental to the aims of the Conservators and that will be maintained. It is the vision that locals and visitors can park their cars discretely in dedicated areas to preserve the quiet, wilderness aspect to the common, and then continue to enjoy their recreation on any part of the common suited to the activity. For example, Berrow Down is more suited for picnics and ball games, whereas other areas are perhaps more suited for walking, which may in turn be different to those areas suited for horse riding.

By managing the scrub and achieving an appropriate grazing regime the common will be more open, resulting in better public access, on paths which have not been churned up and muddied by livestock trampling.

Drainage

The habitat of interest on the SSSI includes both dry grassland and wetland. The common is crossed by a couple of major ditches, demonstrating past attempts to drain it, as well as by natural streams. The question is whether the existing drainage should be improved or not? Since much of the wildlife depends on the wet conditions, the ditches will be left in their current state and not improved. Where it is thought that wetland areas are spreading, they are likely to be reoccupying their former extent before the ditches were dug. It is unlikely that it would be permitted to re-dig the ditches on the SSSI and legally action could be taken for damaging operations. Existing pathways through wetland areas will be maintained for public access.

Natural streams also cross the common, which can become blocked in places by vegetation. These streams can be kept clear of blocking vegetation, but any action to dig them out to allow faster passage of water would be very damaging to the wildlife of the stream, and to areas where the spoil was dumped.

Implementation

With the assistance and support of local people we can start to realise the Vision for Castlemorton Common. The vision aims to maximise the landscape and wildlife potential of the common whilst providing an area for recreation valued by its users and maintaining a viable working common for the commoners who, over the centuries, have helped shape the Castlemorton landscape.