Friends of How to get there Norton Common A1(M) A507 To Biggleswade Norton Common Norton LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY Common Norton A505 Baldock • Discover the countryside Established in 2006, the Friends of Norton Common help to ICKNIELD WAY A6141 • A505 look after the common by working in partnership with North STATION in the heart of Letchworth Hertfordshire District Council and the Countryside Letchworth Management Service. We are mainly local people who A505 discuss, plan and carry out improvements at the common. A6141 We have an active committee and hold an annual public open forum. We complete wildlife surveys and organise N A505 To Stevenage monthly work parties. All ages and experience levels A1(M) welcome. Activities have included: path improvements, installing benches, cleaning out the brook, managing By Road: Norton Common is located on Icknield Way, wildflower grassland and surveying butterflies and orchids. Letchworth. Parking is available next to the swimming pool and the bowls pavilion. For further details visit www.friendsofnortoncommon.info or contact [email protected] By Public Transport: The site is a short walk from Letchworth railway station. For travel details contact Intalink Traveline on 0300 123 4050 or www.intalink.org.uk Facilities at Norton Common: In addition to the Local Nature Reserve there are many Norton Common Local Nature Reserve is owned and managed other facilities: by North Hertfordshire District Council. The Council seeks to balance the need for sustainable development with the Facilities Opening times / cost protection of the environment. Contact us at: Car parks Free, open 24hrs /day. Limit: 4 hours 1930s lido with café, Open between last Bank Holiday www.north-herts.gov.uk 50m heated pool & in May and early September, see Tel: 01462 474000 children’s pool website for times. Charge for entry Senior and junior Free, no pre-booking required The Countryside Management Service (CMS) works with tennis courts communities in Hertfordshire to help them care for and enjoy All-weather, multi-use Free, no pre-booking required the environment. For more information contact us at: games area (MUGA) www.hertsdirect.org/CMS Tel: 01992 588433 Children’s play areas Free Skate board park Free 2 Bowling Greens and Open to members April to Sept. Bowls pavilion Spectators welcome. Local Nature Reserve Local Nature Reserve Welcome to Norton Common The springs feeding the Pix Brook are The grassland is mown annually, preventing the spread of formed as water seeps over an bushes and helping promote the wide range of species. One Norton Common is a Local Nature Reserve in the heart of impermeable layer of boulder clay. day soon we hope to see cattle return to do this job the Letchworth. Here you can explore Look for the orangey-brown staining traditional way. woodland alive with birds, roam in the water, caused by natural iron through grassland full of wild The woodland is not old; much has grown up in the last ra o and calcium salts dissolved as it Fl flowers, find mineral-rich springs h 100 years. Thorn and elder bushes are ars filters through the ground. feeding the Pix Brook and see M slowly giving way to trees – ash, w o n traces of ancient farming. The springs have created oak and the invasive s e h t an area of marshy grassland, a rare and sycamore have seeded in n Many paths cross the Common, o m valuable habitat for plants and themselves whilst m Co some of them surfaced. The map will Norton animals. In summer, look for the pink several other species help you find your way around. We hope spikes of southern marsh orchid, the have been planted. r you enjoy your visit. e t blue of meadow cranesbill and darting r a D The woods provide on dragonflies. Smell the wild mint along m om the path. C many places for birds to What can you see? l w roost, feed and nest. O y Cowslips adorn the old meadow Residents include tawny wn Look out for muntjac, a small deer Ta north of the swimming pool owl, woodpeckers, bullfinch r introduced to this country from e e D c in spring. Later on, look for and song thrush. China. You can sometimes hear their tja un loud bark. They are usually seen in M the yellow tufts of sweet- scented lady’s bedstraw, In spring and summer the woods ones or twos, never in herds. You can tell come alive with birdsong as our the males from their short antlers. the dainty blue harebell and wild carrot whose summer visitors reach us after Amongst the many grey squirrels you will notice some that leaves really do smell their long migration. Listen for are black. They are not a different of carrot. the chiff chaff and the alarm s ip call of the blackcap which species – they just have high sl ow levels of the black pigment C sounds like two marbles l re h knocking together. r c i ‘melanin’ in their fur. n u lfi q ul S Although rare across B k c a l B Britain, black squirrels are increasingly common in Many insects and butterflies, this area and, like their grey including orange tip and Coppicing along the woodland edges skippers, thrive amongst the creates low bushes favoured by relations, do considerable ip T e g wild flowers. many birds and insects. damage to the trees. an p r ca O ck Bla Norton Common LETCHWORTH GARDEN CITY History Norton Common used to be arable and grazing land. You can see evidence of D cultivation in the WILBURYR OA r e undulations seen on p p i k S much of the site. Known ll a m S as ‘ridge and furrow’, they were produced by ploughing strips of open fields in the same direction each year. This was the usual way of farming until the C18th, when the fields were N WILDFLOWER OR MEADOW divided and ‘enclosed’ with hedges. T O RIDGE & N After this, the commoners of Norton were granted rights to FURROW W A Y graze cattle on the Common and an amazing variety of N O wildlife thrived alongside. However, grazing declined and by RIDGE & R T the end of the C19th bushes covered many areas and some of FURROW H the wildlife was lost. HILL HORN HAWT SPRING SWIMMING POOL PIX BROOK C OW SKATE PARK S PLAY AREA PLAY AREA L I MUGA P TENNIS H I COURTS L L BOWLING GREENS SPRING MARSHY GRASSLAND Y WA D IEL KN IC In 1903 the Common was integrated into the design of the Garden City and paths were opened up through the scrub. The lido and other N facilities were added from the 1930s. A surprising amount of wildlife can still be found 100 metres (approx.) on Norton Common and in 2006 it was designated as a Local Nature Reserve. Key Cycle path (part of National Car park Cycle Network) Disabled parking Other surfaced paths Interpretation panels Unsurfaced paths (may be Benches muddy at times) Wheelchair access Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. © Crown copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100018622 2013. Photographs courtesy of Brian Sawford Norton Common Ridge and Furrow.