Priest Hill. Until the Second World War it was north Surrey farmland, a mix of arable (wheat, barley, oats and potatoes) with a small herd of Jersey cows that were used for milking. A demand for the payment of death duties meant that the owners were forced to sell, which in 1942 brought in the tidy sum of £100,000 from Surrey and London County Councils. The farm was demolished in 1956 which then lead to the building of Ewell Technical College and the creation of playing fields for the use of Tulse Hill School, used to service its 2,000+ pupils, who were bussed in from South London. When Tulse Hill closed in 1990 the playing fields, changing rooms, tennis courts and cricket nets were abandoned to vandals, graffiti artists, fly tippers, travellers, glue sniffers, motor bike off-roaders... and me. I used to wander across the fast vegetating land, a vast open wasteland, to see what alien plants were springing up and what (few) birds I could find. A bit of the land was saved (Glyn School maintaining a sporting presence) but the rest of it was allowed to set seed.
By the turn of the millennium there were plans to rescue this area from just becoming an out-of-bounds wasteland. Finally it was decided that a small private development of residential houses could be built in the south-east corner to fund the creation of a nature reserve, to be managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT). This really kicked off into being in 2013. Structures were demolished, hard standing ripped up, fences erected and small ponds created. Quite a bit of the underlying chalk was exposed and green hay brought in from neighbouring Howell Hill to help the calcareous flora to establish. The SWT employed a ranger to solely manage the site, but SWT cuts saw the withdrawal of a full time ranger, although a band of volunteers tries to maintain some form of management on site. And this leads onto the subject of this post - the chalk scrapes and their surprising flora.
As previously mentioned, green hay shipped in from the nearby Howell Hill site helped establish some of the chalk flora, especially Kidney Vetch (top) that has taken over most the four sizeable scrapes, with the welcome colonisation of Small Blue butterflies. The largest scrape is the size of two football pitches, the smallest comparable in area to a tennis court (which is not surprising as that is exactly what it used to be). For the first few years these scrapes were modestly colonised by vegetation, with a small amount of scrub clearance to keep the colonising bully-boys of the botanical world at bay. Local botanist Peter had the bright idea of establishing a nursery for threatened chalk-loving plants, using Surrey-sourced seed from the dwindling wild populations. All permissions were sought and granted. What you will find today is a botanical time-capsule, a wild flower Noah's Ark. This rare plant nursery has an important role to play, keeping locally sourced species alive and viable if they should, indeed, cease to exist in the county. Re-establishment, when a proper home is provided, should be straightforward seeing how easy it has been to produced new plants and seed at Priest Hill. Congratulations are due to all involved. Here are a few of the rescued plants that are being nursed on the scrapes.
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| Basil Thyme. A dramatic decline has been evident across Surrey, with a small patch on Banstead Downs (now gone) having donated the seed for the Priest Hill chalk scrapes. |
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| Wild Candytuft. Away from the Chilterns this is a very local plant, only known in Surrey from the Mickleham and Box Hill areas. Here it can be plentiful if there are clearances (by natural means or otherwise) but can become scarce if scrubbing up occurs. The site that I used to visit to see this species at Mickleham is now out-of-bounds and the chances are that the area will become unfavourable for it. |
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| Cut-leaved Germander. The site is now home to several thousand plants, the species having naturally spread from its original core area. These photos were taken today, with many small plants present as illustrated on the right. Elsewhere in Surrey (away from another relocation site) it is doing poorly. Open ground and disturbance seems to be a necessity for this species, but the seed remains viable for years which may just be its saving grace. |
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Ground Pine. As above, the image was taken this morning, one of a handful of plants found. Again, a species that needs disturbance and clear ground but has a long-lived seed bank that can spring to life where it can be feared lost.
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| Scarlet Pimpernel. It may not be the full-blown species (Lysimachia foemina) but who can resists the blue-flowered form of L. arvensis, in itself an event whenever you come across it. |
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| Shepherd's-needle. Now seemingly lost to Surrey, the seed for this species came from elsewhere, but it has taken well to its new home. |
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| Dragon's-teeth. Not of Surrey provenance but welcome all the same. |
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