SILCHESTER COMMON GRAZING PROPOSALS
A BACKGROUND REPORT
By
Paul Edgar, Project Officer
North East Hampshire Heathlands Project
September 1992 

1: INTRODUCTION

Silchester Common, together with Pamber Forest and several adjacent areas, is part of a large Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which covers 306 ha (758 acres). This extensive and diverse area is of great value for the recreation of local residents and has long been recognised by naturalists for its rich flora and fauna. The varied habitats of the area support a corresponding variety of plant and animal life, with many rare species present, making this one of the best sites of its size in Hampshire.

Silchester Common itself (Figure 1), one of the few surviving tracts of heathland in the Thames Valley region of north Hampshire, is owned and looked after by Silchester Parish Council. A Management Committee, of local people and specialist advisors, has been formed to ensure that required works take place on the Common. The culmination of extensive research, planning and consultation, started in 1989, by this Committee has been a proposal for the reintroduction of grazing to the Common. To this end, the Parish Council has entered the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, administered by the Countryside Commission, to obtain the funding necessary to implement this scheme.

The views of Silchester residents have been sought about the grazing plans, and the associated fencing required, in order to gauge local opinion. The generally positive response of local residents, and their desire to see the Common looked after and protected, has enabled the Parish Council to proceed with an application to the Secretary of State for the Environment, for permission to fence parts of Silchester Common.

This report has been prepared by the North East Hampshire Heathlands Project, one of the bodies consulted, on behalf of Silchester Parish Council and results mainly from a request by many local residents for more background information about the grazing proposals. The reasons for the need to reintroduce grazing, the various management options investigated by the Parish Council and the actual grazing and fencing plans are outlined. This report will also be provided to funding bodies and other organisations and people with an interest in the management of the Common.

The primary aim of Silchester Parish Council is to enhance both the public enjoyment and wildlife value of the Common. The widespread problems of neglect and abuse of heathland have led to a serious deterioration of many similar sites, with a subsequent increase in Development pressures. The involvement and support of local residents is seen as essential if Silchester Common is to be improved and protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

i. The Natural Landscape of Britain. After the last Ice Age the British landscape gradually came to be dominated by primeval woodland – the ancient “wildwood”. The poorest soils at first supported open pine woodland, with a shrub layer dominated by heathers in places. After many centuries of climate warming this type of woodland shifted further north, and today the only remnants to have been spared human destruction can be found in the Caledonian Forest of Scotland. This natural forest, with thick carpets of heather between the massive, spreading pine trees, bears little resemblance to densely packed modern conifer plantations.

In southern England the pines gradually gave way to deciduous woodland which also did not have a continuous tree cover. Various natural forces created a variable patchwork of habitats, which could support a tremendous diversity of plants and animals. Open oak and birch woodland grew on poor sandy soils with a heathy shrub layer below and in glades. Natural tree deaths, storms, and occasional lightning induced fires created the warm sunny clearings required by many species and which were also essential for the growth of new tree saplings. Another major influence on this primeval landscape was grazing by large herbivores. The wild boar, aurochs (the ancestors of our modern cattle) and deer helped maintain a natural balance. The plants and wildlife of modern Britain had many millenia to adapt to the activities of herbivores, a continuing process which shifted north and south in Europe as habitats were affected by successive Ice Ages.

The impact of these and other herbivores (including insects) was considerable. Trees had to produce numerous seeds partly because most saplings that managed to germinate would have been eaten. Many plants evolved mechanisms to cope with grazing and trampling such as growth buds at their base, or even underground, and a low growing habit. Other species became unpalatable by developing chemical defences in their foliage. The herbivores covered large distances and their numbers were kept in check by their predators, such as wolves in ancient Britain, so no one area would have been grazed continuously. As soon as the grazing pressure was lifted the adapted plants responded with vigorous growth and could often flower and set seed better than those that had not been grazed. Other plants evolved to take advantage of the effects of grazing and a large number rely on it to prevent more aggressive species from smothering them. Some plants are so dependant on grazing that they will only germinate in hoof prints in poached ground.

Large unfragmented areas, with balanced populations of herbivores and predators would have once contained every conceivable habitat and microhabitat for plants and therefore for the animal life that ultimately depends on them. Ranging from dense woodland to open, grazed clearings, glades, bogs and floodplains this countryside was naturally balanced until man gained the ability to alter his surroundings. Thousands of years of human modification of the English countryside have resulted in the complete absence of any natural landscapes, and, especially in the last few decades, the destruction, fragmentation and degradation of the few pieces of original semi–natural habitat remaining.

ii. The Effects of Human Activities. The destruction of the original forests followed the development of agriculture. This did not happen all at once and the rates of clearance over the centuries have varied with the tools available, the demand for timber or farmland and the pressures of the population. The poorer soils, of little use to early farmers, developed large tracts of open heathland as trees were removed and the heathy vegetation of natural clearings and the more open forest spread out. These heaths were exploited in many ways, usually to supplement farming on the better soils, and a commoning system was well developed by the Middle Ages.

Local people held various rights to graze livestock, collect wood, turves and other materials such as bracken and gorse. The amount of exploitation varied with the size of the heaths and the communities around them, but in general much of the wildlife preferring open, sunny conditions was able to thrive. Many areas of wood pasture (grazed woodland) were often retained on the better soils of the commons and this habitat supported a variety of forest species.

Until recently, much of the traditional human management of the countryside inadvertently reproduced natural events, to the benefit of the wildlife. Woodland flowers germinate just as well in a fresh coppice as they do in natural tree fall sites; many heathland plants and animals favour patches of bare ground created by turf cutting just as they once needed areas poached and disturbed by aurochs or wild boar; species which benefit from grazing make no distinction between commoners’ livestock and the original wild ancestors of these animals.

The wildlife of Britain has adapted over thousands of years to a landscape, and an array of habitats, influenced by humans. Not all of man’s activities were detrimental and most species were able to maintain healthy populations. All this has changed in the last few decades as technological advances have enabled man to alter the countryside so rapidly, and on such a scale, that most species cannot adapt to the rate of change and all adjacent habitat is affected.

Approximately 90 % of the heathland in north east Hampshire, existing at the end of the 18th Century, has been destroyed. Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council has lost the highest proportion of any area, with over 98 % of its former heaths and commons irretrievably lost and about half of the surviving 160 ha now severely degraded by abuse and neglect. Figures 2 and 3 graphically illustrate this loss (which has occurred on an even greater scale across the border in Berkshire). One major impact has been the fragmentation of habitats by urban expansion, roads, agriculture and other changes. The wildlife of small sites is much more vulnerable than that of large areas to local extinctions.

The virtual end of commoning outside the New Forest has also removed one of the major factors which was maintaining good populations of many species – namely grazing. Linked to a lack of grazing, the natural balance of many sites has been further upset by the increased occurrence of deliberate fires, which usually enables a few plant species (usually bracken, birch or purple moor grass) to dominate large areas, at unnaturally high densities, to the detriment of everything else. As a result sites like Silchester Common have experienced a dramatic decline (well documented by surveys) in their value as wildlife habitats. This situation will continue to worsen without positive human intervention, in the form of management, aimed at reproducing some of the natural factors which so many species are adapted to.

iii. Recent History of Silchester Common. At the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086, what is now the Parish of Silchester was divided into two Manors, united under one Lord of the Manor by 1167. Until the 16th century the centres of population lay around the Church and Three Ashes, and nothing is recorded of the Common. By the 16th century a settlement shift had taken place and there were dwellings on the eastern and northern edges of the Common. There is little primary evidence for this, but it is known that on the 5th September 1601, Queen Elizabeth the First, on her way to Basing House met the Sheriff of Hampshire and other Gentlemen of the County on Silchester Co

In January 1828, the Duke of Wellington purchased the Manor of Silchester from his Father–in–Law, Lord Longford. In the Schedule to the Deed of Release the Manor is described as being co–extensive with the Parish, and that the Common and Waste Lands contained about 200 acres. It is perhaps significant that until the purchase by the Duke of Wellington, no Lords of the Manor had been resident in – or anywhere near – Silchester since the fifteenth century. Thus there would be a greater likelihood of assarting and the building of rough dwellings without any hindrance. The Duke and his Successors took a closer interest in what was happening on the Common. In 1903, evidence was given in a case brought against a Freeholder for encroachment that the Common was, and had been, regarded as Waste of the Manor. Silchester Common was fortunately spared the land use changes of the 18th and 19th Century Enclosure Acts which, together with more recent developments, destroyed so many of the neighbouring Commons and heaths.

In 1965, under the Commons Registration Act, Silchester Common was registered as common land, as an area of 164.67 acres. Rights of Common were registered for 29 properties on or beside the Common, and these include Rights of Estovers, Turbary, gravel extraction and grazing for various animals, namely cows, horses, donkeys, geese, goats, ponies and pigs.

On 22 April 1970, a Scheme of Management for Silchester Common was approved by the Minister of Housing and Local Government under the Commons Act 1899. This had been drawn up by the then Basingstoke Rural District Council in consultation with the Duke of Wellington’s Estate. At the same time a set of Byelaws was passed, subsequently amended in 1978. As the delegation of this Scheme of Management to the Parish Council was being considered in 1972, a Common Committee was set up to act as an advisory body to the Parish Council. Eventually in November 1972, a Resolution was passed by Basingstoke Rural District Council for the Delegation of Powers to the Parish Council, with the exception of the powers requiring the approval of the Lord of the Manor and the Secretary of State for the Environment, also excepting Regulation 4, which covers encroachment.

The Duke of Wellington decided to sell his Silchester Estate, and it was first auctioned in December 1972. After passing through a number of hands, the portions of the Estate containing the Common were bought by John Cook, who offered the Common to the Parish Council in January 1978. In May of that year the Parish Council became the legal Owners of Silchester Common.

3: SITE DESCRIPTION

i. Status. Silchester Common is part of an extensive Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), National Grid reference SU 615 608, first notified in 1951(Figure 4). Also included in the SSSI are Pamber Forest (declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1980), Upper and Lower Inham’s Copse, Lordswood and several adjacent unspoilt meadows. The SSSI covers an area of 306.8 ha (758.1 acres) and is one of the largest tracts of semi–natural countryside left in north Hampshire. The status of the Common requires the Parish Council to obtain consent from English Nature (formerly the Nature Conservancy Council) before management works or any other activities are carried out.

ii. Geography. The village of Silchester lies roughly at the centre of a triangle comprising the towns of Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke. It is very close to the County boundary between Hampshire and Berkshire, the neighbouring Parish to the north, Mortimer West End, representing the curious bump in the Hampshire boundary. The population of Silchester is about 1,100, and the village covers some 769 ha. Silchester is best known for its Roman associations, starting as the tribal capital of the Atrevates and becoming Roman “Calleva”. The walled site has been preserved because it was abandoned at the end of the Roman period in the early 5th Century, and was not reoccupied by the Saxons or any later inhabitants. Only the 12th Century Church and the Manor Farm lie within the Roman walls.

Silchester Common covers approximately 69 ha, the highest part lying around the 100 m contour line. On its south–western side, Silchester Common is bounded by Pamber Forest, an ancient Royal Forest. As can be seen from the maps in this report the Common is shaped like a funnel in the south, such funnels being a characteristic of ancient commons. The funnel is part of the Parish’s only bridleway, which emerges by Silchester Brook on the Burghfield – Basingstoke road.

The main watercourse in the Parish is Silchester Brook, which rises in Tadley and flows through the northern part of Pamber Forest before meandering alongside the bridleway and then through the village. It is joined by a number of small streams and eventually, as Foudry Brook, joins the River Kennet to the south of Reading.

iii. Geology. Geologically, Silchester Common lies in the Thames Valley of north Hampshire. Most of Silchester Common lies on an outcrop of Plateau Gravel, but the lower part of The Common and Lords Wood are on the Lower Bagshot Beds (Figure 5). The Bagshot Beds tend to be horizontal, and because of the formation of hardpan, a capping of gravel and various other factors, characteristically level plateaux with steep edges develop – seen on Silchester Common where the ground falls away sharply to the south. The soils of the Bagshot Beds are usually poor and sandy, as on the Common and in some areas of Pamber Forest, and, like the Plateau Gravel, the natural vegetation would be open birch – oak woodland with an understorey dominated by heathland vegetation. In many parts of Pamber Forest the soils of the Bagshot Beds have a substantial clay content, and are up to 80 feet thick in places, and these richer soils naturally support taller, denser oak woodland. Both the Bagshot Beds and the Plateau Gravel rest on the silts and clays, the Tertiary soils, of the London Basin.

iv. Habitats. Silchester Common supports a variety of habitats, associated with such nutrient poor, acidic soils, of which lowland heathland predominates. The habitats found on the Common have been surveyed by several organisations and individuals in the past but, due to the increased levels of management in recent years (see section 4) and to events such as fires, this work requires regular updating. The last thorough survey of the Common was carried out in 1986 by the Habitat Assessment Team employed by Hampshire County Council. In 1992, as part of the planning for future management and grazing, the North East Hampshire Heathlands Project commissioned a new survey by the Nature Conservation Bureau. The consultants report is included at Appendix III and describes the variety of habitats found on the Common, plus the areas of Pamber Forest and Lordswood which are to be included within the proposed grazed area.

Although subsequent changes to the fence line (following consultation) have resulted in small adjacent areas being excluded from this survey, the whole of that part of the Common to be grazed has been mapped. This work will form the basis of the planned monitoring programme, to be carried out by the Heathlands Project’s consultants, which is essential in order to determine the effects of grazing on the heathland and other habitats (section 6 iii). Should grazing proceed as planned on Silchester Common, this survey provides an important record of the habitats in an ungrazed state, as a comparison for future monitoring.

The decline in the conservation value of Silchester Common has been variable. Habitats such as the alder carr, for example, have remained rich, whereas the wet heath and mire species are now largely smothered by the tussocks and straw of ungrazed purple moor–grass, Molinia caerulea. Uncontrolled fires, especially the damaging summer burns, have also encouraged dense stands of bracken and young birch, with very little structural or species diversity, which can simply outcompete everything else in the absence of natural checks such as grazing.

In north east Hampshire as a whole, over 30 % of the true heathland plant species are categorised as rare to some degree. It is this very high proportion of rarities, also reflected in some of the animal groups, that makes heathland such a high priority for management. Many species are extremely specialised to survive the often harsh conditions of heathland and do not occur in other habitats in Britain.

Silchester Common is fortunate in having such an array of vegetation types, in close proximity to Pamber Forest, with the combination of the various specialists for each area resulting in a very rich flora and fauna. Silchester Common still supports over 320 species of higher plant, 29 bryophytes and 75 fungi. There is a very diverse spider and insect fauna, especially ants and many of the rare solitary bees and wasps which thrive on heathland. The list is considerably enlarged by the presence of woodland species around the edges of the Common and in Pamber Forest. Over 100 bird species have also been recorded for the Pamber/Silchester SSSI.

A suitable management regime, particularly grazing, will prevent the minority of aggressive and invasive species dominating habitats, to the detriment of everything else on the site, and provide the conditions for the declining species to re-establish healthy populations.

4: PAST MANAGEMENT

i. Traditional Management The Rights of Common, registered under the Commons Registration Act, 1965, for 29 properties on or beside the Common (Appendix I), are now very rarely exercised. Within living memory of some residents, however, these Rights were still being exercised by the Commoners. Gorse and bracken were regularly gathered for animal bedding and fuel, as well as fallen wood and loppings. It is not known to what extent all grazing Rights were exercised, but local residents remember keeping pigs and ponies, and cattle belonging to the Dairy roamed the Common. Annual burning was recorded, which would have been of most value carried out in the wetter areas during winter to promote a flush of new grass in the spring for the livestock. Apparently this often used to happen on 5 November, an exciting addition to the bonfires and fireworks.

Gravel was certainly being extracted on a small scale from Silchester Common past the turn of this century. The numerous pits, many now concealed by birch and gorse, bear witness to the past exercise of this Right (Figure 6). Where gravel extraction has exposed a clay layer there are patches of slightly richer soil which show in a different vegetation, and elsewhere deep extractions are belied by wet areas and ponds. These old gravel workings add to the diversity of habitats on the Common.

The Commoners also have a Right of Turbary – the right to dig turf or peat for use as fuel. It is quite likely that peat was extracted from the valley bogs in the 19th century and earlier. Although not strictly legal, there is some evidence that the peat was burnt to use the ashes to fertilize clover and fodder crops on nearby fields.

The result of traditional management was to keep invasive species in check, remove nutrients from the ecosystem (thereby favouring heathland species), provide bare and disturbed ground suitable for seed germination and maintain a form of grazing by large animals centuries after the wild British herbivores had been forced into extinction or domesticated by man. The Commoners of the past were inadvertently conserving much of the wildlife value of the heathland, probably without so much as a second thought.

ii. Conservation Management. The decline of traditional Commoning practices outside the New Forest has led to the subsequent degradation of many heaths through the encroachment of invasive scrub and bracken, usually aggravated by arson and other forms of abuse. Conservation management is relatively new, but in all types of habitat it is the reinstatement of the traditional methods that is proving to be the most effective way of managing sites for wildlife, landscape and public access.

In 1970 it was realised that steps must be taken to control the vegetation, as the encroachment of birch, gorse and bracken was physically restricting public access to Silchester Common and greatly increasing the fire risk, and that a Management Plan was needed. A Scheme of Regulation was approved in this year (Section 2 iii) and in 1972 the Common Advisory Committee was constituted, with the objectives of the preservation of natural features, exercise and recreation. The fact that the Common was no longer grazed by animals was minuted as being the main cause of the problems.

Implementation of these objectives did not happen immediately, but in 1974 the first Volunteer Conservation group came to work on the Common, and the Parish Council joined the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Naturalists’ Trust.

From 1973 onwards The Common was used by the Department of Botany at the University of Reading for small research projects and peat borings, recognizing the importance of Silchester Common as a surviving tract of heathland with valley mires.

In 1977 other Conservation Groups started to visit The Common, and in May 1978 the Parish Council became the legal Owners of the Common. Later that year a Management Schedule was drawn up with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy Council and the Hampshire and I.O.W. Naturalists’ Trust. The first major task undertaken was to clear a fire–break across the northern part of The Common. An important step was taken in 1981 when The Common was divided up into 27 geographical areas and a list of priorities for conservation work drawn up. Tools were purchased and sources of labour and revenue sought.

From 1984 – 1989 work schedules were prepared annually by the Conservation Coordinator, Richard Place for the full–time Working Parties provided by NACRO. Although it was merely checking the encroachment, much excellent and important work was carried out by the Working Parties, and it was a great blow when the Regulations were changed and they were withdrawn in late 1988.

In August 1990, the North East Hampshire Heathlands Project was established with funding from, among others, Hampshire County Council, English Nature and Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council. Silchester Common was immediately identified as one of the priority sites in the region. A proportion of the Project’s budget has been utilised each year since then to employ specialist contractors to carry out short term heathland management (Figure 7). Most of the work has involved clearing scrub and spraying bracken, in particular where heathland vegetation was still persisting.

This management has opened up large areas of the Common, permitting easier public access and allowing the populations of many species to begin building up their numbers again. About 6.5 ha of scrub have been cleared and the stumps treated to prevent regrowth and over 12 ha of bracken have been sprayed (with almost 100 % eradicated in the short term). Further work has also been carried out for adjacent landowners in Lordswood and String Lane Copse in Pamber Forest.

Recent management has been concentrated in the area that is planned for grazing. This is because overgrown heathland, especially bracken infested land, is unsuitable for grazing livestock. As much short term management as possible must be completed, to provide better grazing, before animals are put onto a heath. Once the spread of scrub and bracken has progressed beyond a certain point livestock would be unable to do much good. They cannot eat trees and bracken is poisonous. Introducing livestock after this type of management has been done, however, prevents a reinvasion of the heath (which would inevitably occur without grazing) and reduces the need to repeat this expensive process every five years or so. The acceptance of Silchester Common into the Countryside Stewardship Scheme in 1991 has enabled the Parish Council to proceed with its grazing plans.