FDLHS Talk May 2023: The History and Conservation of the Sudbury Common Lands

 FDLHS May 2023 - Nick Shimwell and Jack Creswell

The History and Conservation of the Sudbury Common Lands

Nick Shimwell and Jack Creswell’s natural habitat is the Sudbury Common Lands, the 46 hectares that provide a green lung stopping the westward sprawl of the town. You may have spotted them in the wild, wearing their distinctive green ranger’s uniform. They came indoors to speak to a well-attended meeting of the FDLHS at Foxearth Village Hall.

Sensibly, Nick and Jack started by explaining what a “common” is and helped dispel the myth that commons are owned by the public. There are over 8,000 of them scattered across England. A defining feature is the “rights of common”, which give third parties the legal right to do something on the land, which is owned by a private individual or body such as the National Trust or local council. In Sudbury, the right is to “pasturage” (to put livestock out to feed on the grass) over the five water meadows to the west of the town, but on other commons rights can include for example “pannage” (right to put pigs out to feed in woodland) and “piscary” (right to take fish from ponds, lakes, rivers and streams).

It is the Sudbury Freemen who have pasturage rights over the Sudbury Common Lands – or to be exact, the right “to depasture two head of cattle on the Common Lands, and widows or widowers of Freemen one head of cattle”. If you fancy becoming a Freeman you are out of luck unless you are the adult child or grandchild of a Sudbury Freeman or have been apprenticed to a Sudbury Freeman (in which case, you can take up your rights by applying to Sudbury Town Council). These days, none of the Sudbury Freeman own cattle. The Sudbury Common Lands Charity was established in 1897 to be the custodian of the Common Lands, and trustees contract with a farmer to graze their cattle on the water meadows. The charity pays £4 a year to each Freeman for use of their rights. A “turning on” ceremony is held every five years, attended by the Freemen and Mayor of Sudbury in their regalia, with the Mayor invited to sample the sward. As Nick and Jack explained, this doesn’t have to involve actually eating the grass though some Mayors have chosen to do so.

Over recent decades, the cattle breeds have changed from South Devons and Highland cattle, to Simmentals and Limousins. Their grazing is vital to achieving biodiversity, eating down and churning the pasture just enough to allow wild flowers to flourish, including what Nick and Jack called the “star plant”, the Tubular Water-dropwort. Ditches were reformed in 1993, designed to retain still water for wildlife to create an additional type of aquatic habitat in contrast to the flowing Stour. Trees have been planted, the willows pollarded every 2-3 years.

The Charity is also contracted to manage the Valley Trail, now an important “biological corridor” for 2½ miles from Kingfisher Leisure Centre to Melford Country Park. Dr Beeching’s closure of the railway in 1967 has been a boon to bats and rare flora including the Deptford pink, which is found in only 15 sites across East Anglia. Nick and Jack also work on the ancient and reclaimed woodland of the Great Cornard Country Park, which provides different habitat for wildlife, including bluebells and bea orchids.

We’re fortunate to live surrounded by so much countryside along the Stour Valley but modern farming practices over the last 80 years, though taking great strides in improving productivity, have often had a negative impact on biodiversity. The work that Nick and Jack do provides a small remedy.

Andrew Le Sueur