NWT’s Commons week events at Southrepps

During Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s recent Commons Week, Southrepps was honoured to be the location for three events – well that was the plan.

First up was ‘Exploring the Common’ on Monday 8^th July – led and reported by Margaret Dowland and Sue Parsons:

Blessed with a beautiful day we had a group of 21 people joining the walk around the SSSI. Note the encouraging use of the map.

This lovely number did mean that talking on the boardwalk was a little difficult. Fortunately, in the group were two NWT helpers and several other people, notably Yvonne and Stephen, who were happy to share their knowledge. In fact they found some fantastic fungi that they shared with the group. Here is a very poor photo of collared parachute, which charmed everyone.

The Marsh Helleborines were absolutely at their best...

 ... as were the Marsh Fragrant Orchids.

Yvonne spotted the shell case of the micro moth Psyche Casta. Known as 'bagworms' or 'case-bearers', the larvae of the Psychidae construct cases from fragments of plant material; in this instance, pieces of grass. The case is attached to a tree trunk or foliage, or quite often to a wooden fence or gate. (See https://norfolkmoths.co.uk/micros.php?bf=1860  for more on this and some images of the moths and their cases.)

The quaking grass gave a lovely purple hue to the common, and the tiny fen bedstraw was not overlooked.

Not only did we have fungi experts but also an orchid specialist, and Roger identified the Pugsley's marsh orchid, otherwise called the Narrow leaved marsh orchid.

The participants appeared to enjoy themselves. For some it was their first but hopefully not last visit to the Common and I might have a new recruit for the Balsam bash on Friday 19th July at 3pm. We did suggest that they might like to return at midnight to view the glow worms. This would certainly be worth a trip after dark - they can be seen from the boardwalk.

Wednesday 10^th July was the date for ‘New light on the history of Norfolk’s commons’, scheduled to be held in the Southrepps Village Hall, and featuring references to our own beloved Southrepps Commons. Great consternation was caused however on the evening before, when a chance remark revealed that the Village Hall was also the intended venue for a meeting of the Parish Council. So urgent emails were sent to all who had booked for the lecture, advising them that instead of coming to Southrepps they needed to find their way to Trimingham Village Hall, which I am happy to say they did. And what a fabulous new hall it is! It’s very new, apparently part funded by the Sheringham Shoal Windfarm and the National Lottery. If like me you’ve never had the pleasure of going there, take a look at their web page (https://trimingham.org/village-hall/).

Anyway, I digress. Once the eager throng had partaken of the generous refreshments provided by NWT (also courtesy of the National Lottery, which has part funded the ‘Wildlife in Common Project’ (see https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-in-norfolk/commons/wildlife-in-common) they filed into the splendidly light and airy main room, to sit themselves on the hastily set out chairs (I can take some of the credit here, thank you). The ever-enthusiastic Gemma Walker introduced Tom Williamson of the University of East Anglia, where he is Professor of Landscape History, and away he went, like a runaway train. According to the pre-publicity, Tom’s aim was to “describe the results of recent research, carried out as part of the 'Wildlife in Common' project, into the history and archaeology of Norfolk's common land”, and boy, did he cover some ground, in more senses than one. He is an extraordinarily enthusiastic lecturer, with an enormous passion for his subject, and that must have inspired many in the audience. Naturally, his talk was copiously illustrated, including several interesting shots of our own dear spot.

Tom is very, very keen on maps and the fun you can have exploring them, overlaying data from different maps to reveal many unexpected things. For example, we were introduced to the wonders of the Ordnance Survey maps available from the National Library of Scotland – see https://maps.nls.uk/os/ - as Tom said, you could spend a day looking at them, but it would be time well spent. As was an evening listening to him.

Minibeast magic on the common – report by Margaret Dowland

Friday 12 was the final Southrepps activity for Wildlife in Common Week. Gemma and two NWT education officers - Georgie and Findley - set up camp in School Common. Gemma was planting wildflower seeds to take home, colouring badges and making butterfly feeders. Findley was deep in the wood rummaging in the undergrowth to unearth, woodlice, spiders and all manner of creepy crawlies. I was with Georgie in School meadow with the sweep nets to see what we could catch.

Common green Grasshopper:

Female Meadow plant bug on thw hand of one young participant:

Unknown green bug:

The session lasted from 3.30 - 5.00 but unfortunately clashed with the School’s fete. Despite this we had 24 keen naturalists and their families. It was great to meet so many children fascinated by the beautiful insects we found, even if we couldn’t name them all.