Selborne Common


Selborne Common is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Selborne in Hampshire. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I, and is part of the East Hampshire Hangers Special Area of Conservation. It is managed by the National Trust.

Topography

The Common occupies the crown of Selborne Hill, an easterly guardian of the Hampshire Downs. The highest part has an elevation of above sea level. The southerly and westerly flanks slope away gently; on the other sides the contours are steeper. The steepest slope of all, with a maximum gradient of about 50%, overlooks the village and is called "Selborne Hanger". To the west of this is Coneycroft Hill, which in places is almost as precipitous. Between Selborne Hanger and Coneycroft Hill is a deep dell.

Geology

The soil on the Common consists of clay with flints, overlying the chalk of which the South Downs are made. The watercourses are underground and discharge into the Oakhanger Stream, flowing north-eastwards, and the Caker Stream, flowing northwards. Both ultimately join the River Wey.

Flora

The steepest slopes are clad in ancient beechwood : a "hanger", in East Hampshire, is just such a beechwood. The plateau is occupied by more beechwood, mixed with other broad-leaved species such as English oak, ash and hawthorn, and in places is scrubby. A small part of the plateau comprises open grassland with scattered gorse and stands of bracken. Other, smaller areas of chalk grassland have recently been recreated elsewhere.
The Common is noted for its wild flowers, with thriving communities of yellow archangel, wood spurge and wood anemone. Spurge-laurel is sparsely but widely distributed. The Common is also home to such interesting species as stinking hellebore, green hellebore, bird's nest orchid, violet helleborine, the extreme rarity E. x schulzei, and green-flowered helleborine.

Fauna

Various rare molluscs and insects have been recorded. Butterflies on the Common include the Duke of Burgundy, silver-washed fritillary and purple emperor.
The avifauna includes most of the species typical of broad-leaved woodland in southern England, such as sparrowhawk, stock dove, tawny owl, European green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, garden warbler, blackcap, chiffchaff, spotted flycatcher, marsh tit, nuthatch, treecreeper Certhia familiaris and jay.
Buzzards regularly hunt over the tree canopy. Hobby, woodcock, common firecrest and brambling are occasional visitors. Selborne Common is a reliable place to find the wood warbler.
Roe deer and dormouse are resident mammals.

History and management

From the prehistoric or Romano-British period there is evidence of a field system, which may have been re-used during the Middle Ages. The Common has not been ploughed since then.
Earthworks on the western boundary have tentatively been dated to the mid thirteenth century, when Newton Park was emparked. An earth bank, running across the Common, has been dated to around 1750 and was probably used to protect coppice woodland from grazing animals.
During the eighteenth century, the lord of the manor felled beeches on the Common. Local people exercised their common rights to graze cattle and sheep and to collect firewood, activities which continued into the 1950s.
In mediaeval times the nearby Selborne Priory was lord of the manor of Selborne; the manor subsequently passed to Magdalen College, Oxford, which donated it to the National Trust in 1932. Cattle have recently been reintroduced in an attempt to reconstruct the ancient, flower-rich, wood-pasture habitat which commoning produced and which has almost disappeared from England.
A dew pond, Wood Pond, is situated near the western boundary.

Gilbert White

Selborne Common is internationally famous for its association with the eighteenth-century naturalist, Gilbert White.

Access

The Common is freely accessible to all, subject to the National Trust's byelaws. It is best approached from Selborne, via the Zig-Zag or Bostal paths. A more level track leads to the Common from Newton Valence; footpaths join it also from the south-east and north-west. After rain and especially in winter, some paths can become very muddy.
Selborne Common is on the Hangers Way.