By editor Comment Closed
Nettlebed & District Conservators (NDCC) have been awarded grants totalling £31,600 for new conservation and landscape improvement projects on Peppard, Kingwood and Nettlebed Commons. Nettlebed & District Commons total 560 acres and were established as common land by Robert Fleming in 1906. Nowadays, the Commons are mostly dominated by secondary woodland, and the main focus of NDCC’s projects will be to open up selected areas by creating woodland rides and glades, thereby encouraging new natural habitats, increasing biodiversity, and improving access for recreation and leisure pursuits. The Commons are widely used, not only by people from Rotherfield Peppard and Nettlebed, but also from neighbouring parishes and from Henley and Reading.The awards, which were announced in October, are strictly dedicated to the new conservation measures defined in NDCC’s funding application and cannot be assigned to annual operating expenditures or ongoing general Commons maintenance.

The funded conservation work will be supported by NDCC’s volunteer work parties. The Commons are ecologically important, Peppard and Kingwood containing locally rare heathland, and Nettlebed having one of the most important wetland sites in Oxfordshire. They are special; please help to conserve them.

For further information about the grants, and NDCC’s Commons projects, click here