Photo courtesy for South Hills resident Marie Pohler
Brill Common News & Notices
February 2025
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our Heritage Lottery Fund application for a new project:
Protect Brill Common Forever! Securing the future of Brill Common's Wildlife and Commoning heritage
We have been awarded £154,261 to spend entirely on the common and all things common-related over a period of 5 years. In a nutshell, this includes money for:
Scrub clearance and general conservation work
Employment of a paid Wildlife and Community Ranger for an initial 5 year period
Interpretation boards explaining the wildlife (flora and fauna) on the common
An accessibility audit
Community awareness raising events (including a volunteer recruitment drive in Brill and beyond)
Battery powered tools
Training for staff and volunteers
Fees for on-going advice and support and help with further grant applications
As most people reading this will know, Brill Common is a chalk grassland priority habitat and this project will protect and enhance this important (and dwindling) national resource. Conservation grazing (ie the Brill Village Community Herd) is an effective and environmentally sustainable way of managing this unique habitat. Vegetation management by volunteers, rather than large machinery, is also important, for two reasons: It’s environmentally sustainable - and it encourages engagement in the countryside, which in turn promotes the protection of habitats and species.
More generally, Protect Brill Common Forever! will help to meet the government’s targets for nature recovery including a committment to protect and effectively manage 30% of England’s land and sea for nature by 2030. Furthermore, our project will contribute towards mitigating carbon emissions by increasing the area of species-rich grassland. There is evidence that increased species-richness in grasslands - particularly in communities of deep-rooting plant species and legumes - increases carbon sequestration.
Protect Brill Common Forever! will also be an important element in the ambitious Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor & the Ray strategy instigated by BBOWT in partnership with other bodies.
Brill Common’s existing volunteers are dedicated and hard-working. The recruitment of a ranger will enable the Parish Council to advertise volunteering opportunities to a wider demographic from further afield, including youth groups and other organisations. The ranger will be tasked with enthusing new audiences about the value of our common; including facilitating education events for schoolchildren and developing accessible interpretation facilities.
We hope you as excited and inspired by this news as we are! Brill Common will now be professionally managed, in close collaboration with the community, and for the benefit of the people of Brill and beyond and for generations to come.
Please email Cllr Emi Slater or Bobs Daverell, the Parish Clark, if you have an questions - and do take a look at the Wildlife & Community Ranger job description. Spread the word about this exciting opportunity; we want to reach as many potential applicants as possible and choose the very best.
The deadline for applications is March 12th 2025 and interviews will be held March 24th.
December 2024
If you’re walking on North Hills in January, you may see a digger pulling up tree roots. We’re doing this to prevent the spread of sycamore (an invasive and deep rooted tree) in order to protect the chalk grassland, one of the main habitats that make up Brill Common and one of the reasons the common has been designated a Local Wildlife Site. “Lowland calcareous grassland” is a rare and disappearing habitat; a “habitat of principal importance” according to Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act. Good quality chalk grassland is potentially the most botanically diverse habitat in the UK, with up to 50 plant species found in a very small area. Sadly, about 80% of species-rich chalk grassland has been lost to agricultural improvement since the Second World War, and Brill Common remains one of the few such areas left in the area. If we allow the sycamores to grow, wildflowers will be crowded out and this habitat will be lost for ever .
The goats have been moved to enable grazing in a different area. They will be getting a new temporary winter shelter; North Hill is quite exposed and the goats are not getting any younger. The shelter will be in situ just until March. Goats graze in a different way to cattle - they love brambles! - so they are a vital part of the conservation grazing regime which enables and supports the rich variety of habitats we are so lucky to have.
You may also notice sporadic bird ringing on North Hills in the coming months. We are recording which birds are attracted to this unique habitat. Please keep your dog on a lead if asked to do so.