The 1,900m perimeter of Thornage Common County Wildlife Site has been re-fenced to enable conservation grazing to take place again after an absence of over five years. Grazing is vital to these wet meadows site for attractive plants such as the common spotted orchid and ragged robin, and as optimal hunting territory for barn owls.

 

We are using professional fencers to meet the stringent standards for specifications of the three types of post used, their spacing, and the tension in the 4 strands of barbed wire to be used.  This will offer uniformity and durability to a high standard to potential graziers, as well as meeting the specifications of the grant aid we have managed to source.

 

However, before the fencing operation can start there is a need for line clearance. For this site this was a really major task for the RGCG to take on. The existing fencing was 25-30 years old, and most places where still standing was no longer stock proof. In many places hedgerow trees had been used to fix the wire, a practice which is no longer in use. In the majority of places a tangle of bramble and blackthorn had grown forward from the hedges and old fence line. This was between 2-5 yards deep, but in one shaded stretch was nearer 10 yards.

 

The fencing operation needs ground, hedge and overhead clearance to allow access of a tractor fitted with the facilities of a post “thumper” and to reel out of coils of barbed wire. Our approach therefore was to clear all vegetation back to the original fenceline, and then re-fence some 1-1.5m inside that. The vegetation would grow forward again to the new fencing and thicken the hedges which line the long west and east boundaries of the site.

 

The scale of the operation, the density of the bramble and blackthorn growth, and the amount of the overhanging branches and the size and weight of some, presented a formidable problem. Plus we were working on river meadows which were even wetter this year than the winter norm. A fencer company who also quoted for the line clearance cost estimated this to be over £6,000, about the same as the fencing itself. We managed to do it at about one tenth of this.

 

Our approach was to use a mixture of a very skilled application of brute force, followed by a gentle touch. First Peter Howard went in with a tracked digger, working over the Christmas-New Year period. With this (plus some sawing for large branches) it was possible to knock down much of the over-hanging branches, and side swipe down and to one side most of the bramble and blackthorn growth. Also lengths of collapsed fencing, posts and lengths of old barbed wire that came with it.

 

An important role for the digger was not only to pull this tangled mass away from the fence line, but to push it into consolidated heaps in non-sensitive areas where it could later be burned and the ash and any wire remaining could be disposed off.

 

The heavy plant work was followed by weeks of hand work with bow saw, heavy duty loppers, wire cutters and a rake. This was needed to remove remaining small branches in the line, saplings and in particular bramble stalks, which remained obstinately flat or upright. Stray lengths of barbed wire still attached to a post or tree wire pulled out. (Warning, do not try this at home. Barbed wire can snag up on even a blade of grass it seems. A tug to free it can result in a sudden and sharp release, with the wire curling itself about your person, rather than the old post you have to wind it around and to take it away safely).

 

A very secondary item to the fencing in terms of time and cost, but still important, was to improve the cattle crossing/ drinks areas. The approaches were dressed with a fine stone, and guide rails erected, to prevent the cattle form trampling banks and carrying mud into the river. At the same time, in a piece of unfinished business, the riffle sections running downstream from the crossing area itself, were “top-dressed” with a fine gravel suitable for trout spawning and invertebrates.

 

So on this site the RGCG have undertaken their second major project; the first of course being the Cinderella Chalk Rivers Restoration Project, for which we won the annual Wild Trout Trust and Orvis Conservation Awards 2007 (see last Newsletter).

 

In carrying out this important fencing operation we thank first of all Rosanna Dollman of Natural England, the Catchment Sensitive Farming Officer, for her encouragement and help in applying for grant aid through the CSF scheme; Defra for awarding the grant to the two farmers involved; Norfolk County Council for making a further contribution on biodiversity interests; Cemex for the favourable price for the stone and gravel.

 

Finally we express our thanks to the Cozens-Hardy family as owners of the larger part of the site, and Peter Howard as farmer on the rest of the meadows, and for his skills as a heavy plant operator. Their investment in the site is much appreciated.

                                                                                                        

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