LOCAL HERITAGE STUDY Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Lindsay Griffin Editor Dedication This study is dedicated to the Lords of the Manors past and present and to all of those who have worked to maintain the Commons as the source of pleasure with which they provide all of us here. In particular it is dedicated to those founding members of the Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Preservation Society who recognised that we have, on our doorstep, an amenity well worth preserving and who fostered the expectation that this community should actively support the Lord of the Manors in doing so. We hope to leave the Commons in the best possible condition for future generations in the hope that they too will enjoy and care for our heritage. Local Heritage Study Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Editor Lindsay Griffin ISBN 0-9544925-0-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the publishers. Published by Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Preservation Society with a grant from The Heritage Lottery Fund April 2003 CONTENTS Pallett’s Pond Boundary Stone DEDICATION • Alan Pallett 24 APPENDICES 81 • Ron How 25 Appendix I History of H&C Commons 81 MAPS & ILLUSTRATIONS • Frank Sugden 26 Appendix II Cholesbury Fort 82 • Windsor Thomas 26 Appendix III Commemorative FOREWORD • Oliver Parsons 27 Trees and Benches 84 • Rod Griffin 28 Appendix IV Registration ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • Fletcher Nicholson 29 of Rights of Common 85 • David Barnard 32 HISTORY OF COMMON LAND IN Appendix V Cholesbury-the ENGLAND 1 MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMONS 35 parish that went bust 86 Rights of Common 2 Principles of Conservation Appendix VI Cholesbury Poor Relief Land Title 2 Management 36 Records 87 Why Commons are Important 3 Development of Management Plans 37 Appendix VII Lords of the Manors 88 Plan for 1989-94 38 Appendix VIII H&C Commons HAWRIDGE AND CHOLESBURY Planning and Implementation from Regulations 89 COMMONS 5 1994 to present 39 Appendix IX H&C Properties A Brief Outline 6 The Future 40 with Commons Rights 90 Ancient Forts 6 Appendix X H&CCPS Committee Geological Features 8 FLORA AND FAUNA 41 Members 92 Manmade Hollows 8 Flora 42 Appendix XI The ponds 93 Pounds 9 • Changes over time 42 Archaeological Finds 9 • Ferns and Mosses 42 INDEX 97 Tracks 10 • Sedges, Rushes and Grasses 43 Memorials 10 • Herbs 45 Economic Uses 11 • Climbers 51 Poor Relief 11 • Trees and Shrubs 51 An End to Grazing 12 • Analysis 55 Recreational Use 13 • Conclusions and Recommendations 55 Major User Groups 14 • The Ponds 56 • Walkers 14 • Pond Flora 56 • Horse-riders 14 • Fungi 60 • Cricket Club 15 Fauna 62 The Role of the Lord of the Manors 16 • Mammals 62 • Birds 63 HAWRIDGE AND CHOLESBURY • Invertebrates 68 COMMONS PRESERVATION • Lepidoptera SOCIETY 19 (Moths and Butterflies) 68 Founding Committee Members 20 • Miscellaneous Insects Original Rules 20 (mainly Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids) 74 Membership of the Society 21 • Invertebrates around the pond 76 Original Aims of the Society 21 • Conclusions 77 Liaison with the Community 21 The Committee - a Communal Effort 22 Our Hopes for the Future 78 The Chairmen – Recollections of their Terms of Office: 23 Sources of Reference and • Peter Knowles-Brown 23 Further Reading 79 MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS MAPS Butterfly Walk 19 Map 1 Houses, Public Buildings and Penny and Charlotte Dale at play 19 Landmarks (David Barnard) 7 Working Party Bonfire 19 Map 2 Vegetation (Jayne Northcott), David Barnard (present Chairman) Lanes and Footpaths (David Barnard) 8 and Rod Griffin (past Chairman) 23 ILLUSTRATIONS Collage - Scrub clearing in progress opposite the Mission Hall 30 Collage of Documents from the Manorial Records` Dedication Clearing Understorey 31 Logo H& C Commons Preservation Wood pasture after Clearing 31 Society (Edward Wright) Title Page Millennium Bench 32 Newspaper Clippings Cricket on Cholesbury Common 33 (Bucks Examiner, 1936) 16, 17 Millennium Tree Planting 34 Newsletter Illustration (Graham Lincoln) 33 One of George Brown’s Cows grazing outside Cherry Orchards 35 PHOTOGRAPHS Manual Clearing at a Working Party 35 Wood pasture, Hawridge Common near to Stoney Lane Mechanical Clearing 35 Front Cover, Foreword, 1, 19 Harebells 41, 46 Fly Agaric Foreword, 61 Sarah Clark with Grasses 43 Ducks on Pallett’s Pond, Cholesbury Foxgloves 50, 79 Front Cover, Contents, 18, 25 Dog Rose 53 Boundary (Jubilee) Stone Contents Velvet Shanks 60, 79 Christine Stott (Lord of the Manors of Hawridge and Cholesbury) Foreword Horse-riders with Overburnts in the background 78 View opposite Mission Hall Foreword Drovers’ Path 96 View north from the School Foreword Hawridge Common in Winter Back Cover Morning tea at a Working Party Acknowledgements (Left to Right George Pitman, Lindsay Griffin, Steve WOODCUTS Cheeld, Nicola Chaplin, Mike Wallis, Chris San Martin, (Thomas Bewick 1753-1795) David Barnard, Mike Toner) Boy Fishing 1 Hawridge and Cholesbury Cricket Pitch 2 Shepherd 1 Tree Felling 1 The Bury in the Snow 4 Man with Faggot 5 View from the gate of Hawridge Place Jay 41 across Hawridge Common (around 1910) 6 Whitethroat 66 Mistle Thrush 67, 97 Honeysuckle clambering (near the lower horse track) 6, 79 Pheasant 67, 97 Wheatear 67, 97 Millennium Tree Planting 10 David Savill (with Sammy and Barney) and view to the north of Cholesbury Common 12 “It is believed locally that one adds ten years to one’s life LOCAL by living on the Common” Know Your Parish, 1967 HERITAGE STUDY Hawridge and FOREWORD Cholesbury he initiative for this study came from a grant application from Commons Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Preservation Society (H&CCPS) Tto the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) which was made in January 2001 as a Local Heritage Initiative. The application included an education programme, practical management works and a course to improve the skills of local volunteers in the use of chainsaws. Chris Woodley-Stewart, the Countryside Officer of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), suggested that a written study emphasising the importance of the Commons and promoting their heritage value might also be included. A proposal for this study was therefore incorporated in the grant application which was successful. The Society greatly appreciates the money which the Heritage Lottery Fund has provided since it has enabled work to go ahead which might otherwise have been hard to finance and it has enabled the Society to widen its vision of what it can do. Lindsay Griffin was asked to co-ordinate the written study and she has consulted the H&CCPS committee, its membership past and present and other local organisations to bring the document together. This study has provided an excellent opportunity to review the history of the Commons over the years and to document changes in management strategies in more recent times. We hope that it will provide our members and other interested people with information about the Commons, record the contribution of many local people to their maintenance and encourage further community involvement in preserving a valuable local resource. Although we intended to include a history of the local community in this study we now realise that it will take much longer to complete this section. Much of the work is under way and will be made available as a separate, loose-leaf document. It is intended to produce what we have to date, even though it is very much a work in progress, in the hope that it will stimulate further local interest. Further additions will be made as they become available. The planned wider study will include interviews with older and long-standing residents, further histories of individual houses on and around the Commons, and records of our public buildings and of our local clubs and organisations. The Commons are not only home to flora and fauna but also to a rich mix of human beings who all have different memories and different experiences to record. Families whose names crop up in records of the parishes several hundred years ago live side-by-side with those who have been here for only two or three generations, and those who have come much more recently. We hope that this study is only the beginning and that we can go some way to recording a cross-section of their activities and endeavours. It is also hoped that we can make use of our local web-site www.cholesbury.com to share information that we find. Christine Stott Lord of the Manors and President of the Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Preservation Society Views of Hawridge Common LOCAL HERITAGE STUDY Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Morning tea at a working party ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS bviously a study such as this can only be areas of expertise; Dan Merrett, Bucks People and successfully accomplished with the help of many Wildlife Officer of Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust Opeople and I would like to thank the following for (BBOWT) for his report on the ponds and their work in bringing it to fruition:- Each of the five recommendations for their management; Martin chairmen of H&CCPS who still live locally and the Albertini, Bucks County Moth Recorder and Peter Hall families of those chairmen who have since died, for their for permission to use their data on moths, butterflies and recollections of experiences as chairmen; members of the other insects; Clive Carey for information about fungi; Committee past and present for their recollections and Linden Bevan-Pritchard, Sue Fletcher and