Photo courtesy for South Hills resident Marie Pohler
Brill Common News & Notices
April 2025
After interviewing a very strong field of candidates, we appointed Brill Common’s Wildlife & Community Ranger, funded by our National Lottery Heritage Fund grant. Unfortunately, the successful candidate declined the job on the day they were due to be inducted into the role and we are presently considering the best way forward.
In the meantime, following Cllr Emi Slater’s talk at the annual Parish Meeting on Monday April 29th, we would like to share full details of the Protect Brill Common Forever! grant application plus Emi’s Powerpoint presentation, supplementary notes, and answers to questions posed by residents attending the Parish Meeting.
Click to view a pdf of Cllr Emi Slater’s Powerpoint presentation
Key points in Cllr Emi Slater’s talk to the Annual Parish Meeting
Please read these notes in conjunction with Emi’s PowerPoint presentation.
This project grew out of frustration over residents’ lack of interest and knowledge regarding Brill Common, in particular, their failure to understand links between how we care for our Common and climate change. These are some of the questions Emi has been asked in recent years, revealing the depth of people’s misunderstanding:
Why do we need scrub management/goats/cows?
Why can’t we plant tulips on the common?
Why are their fewer insects and butterflies than 20 years ago?
Why can’t we use pesticides on the common?
Why is there cow dung and MUD on the common?
Nature depletion is a massive problem with the UK leading Europe in losing the highest percentage of habitats. We need to nurture the nature on our doorstep. Instead we have (for example) people allowing their dogs to romp in a pond on The Walks, despite the present of wildlife (the newts) - and creeping encroachment. Everyone who lives in Brill should understand and take responsibility for the wellbeing of our Common. Likewise the management of trees; a huge issue requiring expertise and time to explain the situation to residents, gain cooperation and implement the solutions.
It is striking how little money has been spent on Brill Common over the years. There is so much to do but Parish Councillors are volunteers who simply don’t have the time and expertise - and our brilliant volunteers are (in their own words) growing old. We eventually identified the need for an energetic expert to talk to share information and raise awareness, work with volunteers and generally manage things more professionally. Someone suggested applying to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the money to make this happen - and so this project was born: Protect Brill Common Forever!
Why now?
Our long-standing volunteers are getting older and nature restoration needs are becoming acute. Complicated issues such as encroachment need proactive and consistent on-going management that doesn’t depend on individual’s interest and energy. The excellent work of the Brill Common Advisory Group needs to continue independent of the input of individual Parish Councillors. We need to be actively supporting wider projects, in particular the crucial Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor and the Ray project. Professionalism is the key word now.
It’s important to stress this project is supported by all the groups of volunteers who already work on the Common.
What would the Wildlife & Community Ranger actually do?
There’s lots of information in the project application. This is a summary of their duties:
Work alongside volunteers on the Common - and recruit new volunteers
Deliver the Brill Common management plan
Design and implement an ecological monitoring strategy
Manage the Common Advisory Group
Support the Parish Council in tackling encroachment
Raise awareness of wildlife on the common
Organise community engagement events
Become familiar with management of the Brill Village Community Herd
This is a 5 year project. The application includes a schedule for each year, summarised in the PowerPoint slides and detailed in the Project Plan. There’s plenty of hard physical work but also lots of celebrations - the National Lottery Heritage Fund likes celebrations! - including Beating the Bounds and hog roasts.
The second part of the project is about understanding Commoning; its heritage and the present day actuality of protecting and nurturing the environment by the community herd.
How will the money be spent?
Again, the detail is in the application but, in summary: the Ranger’s salary, community events (guided walks, bug hunts and so on), work parties and scrub management, transfer to battery tools, public interpretation boards, ecological strategy, accessibility audit (and delivering the recommendations), training events, expert advice on future funding and applying for grants.
Protect Brill Common Forever is 86% funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, 10% by Brill Parish Council with the balance of 4% made in non-cash contributions.
This is our chance to celebrate and protect Brill Common, deepen our understand and knowledge of this unique and precious environment, create a lasting legacy for future generations - and make a real contribution to restoring nature and combating climate change. There will be a community event to welcome and introduce the Ranger when they are appointed. In the meantime, all the information is available to read, on this website and in print in the Parish Office.
Questions and answers
Q: What is the catchment area for the recruitment of the Ranger?
A: No criteria regarding where the candidate lives; it’s up to them how they travel to work and so on. The important thing is getting the right person for the job.
Q: Why not have sheep on the common, as in the past?
There has been many discussions in the past about installing cattle grids to allow sheep to roam the Common. Grassland is best managed by a mixture of livestock but of these cattle are the best grazers. Sheep can be difficult! They fall ill, escape and are vulnerable to dogs and road traffic.
Click to view a pdf of the National Lottery Heritage Fund application and award
Click to view a pdf of the Project Plan and Risk Register
February 2025
We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our National Lottery Heritage Fund application for a new project:
Protect Brill Common Forever! Securing the future of Brill Common's Wildlife and Commoning heritage
We have been awarded £154,261 to spend entirely on the common and all things common-related over a period of 5 years. In a nutshell, this includes money for:
Scrub clearance and general conservation work
Employment of a paid Wildlife and Community Ranger for an initial 5 year period
Interpretation boards explaining the wildlife (flora and fauna) on the common
An accessibility audit
Community awareness raising events (including a volunteer recruitment drive in Brill and beyond)
Battery powered tools
Training for staff and volunteers
Fees for on-going advice and support and help with further grant applications
As most people reading this will know, Brill Common is a chalk grassland priority habitat and this project will protect and enhance this important (and dwindling) national resource. Conservation grazing (ie the Brill Village Community Herd) is an effective and environmentally sustainable way of managing this unique habitat. Vegetation management by volunteers, rather than large machinery, is also important, for two reasons: It’s environmentally sustainable - and it encourages engagement in the countryside, which in turn promotes the protection of habitats and species.
More generally, Protect Brill Common Forever! will help to meet the government’s targets for nature recovery including a committment to protect and effectively manage 30% of England’s land and sea for nature by 2030. Furthermore, our project will contribute towards mitigating carbon emissions by increasing the area of species-rich grassland. There is evidence that increased species-richness in grasslands - particularly in communities of deep-rooting plant species and legumes - increases carbon sequestration.
Protect Brill Common Forever! will also be an important element in the ambitious Reconnecting Bernwood, Otmoor & the Ray strategy instigated by BBOWT in partnership with other bodies.
Brill Common’s existing volunteers are dedicated and hard-working. The recruitment of a ranger will enable the Parish Council to advertise volunteering opportunities to a wider demographic from further afield, including youth groups and other organisations. The ranger will be tasked with enthusing new audiences about the value of our common; including facilitating education events for schoolchildren and developing accessible interpretation facilities.
We hope you as excited and inspired by this news as we are! Brill Common will now be professionally managed, in close collaboration with the community, and for the benefit of the people of Brill and beyond and for generations to come.
Please email Cllr Emi Slater or Bobs Daverell, the Parish Clark, if you have an questions - and do take a look at the Wildlife & Community Ranger job description. Spread the word about this exciting opportunity; we want to reach as many potential applicants as possible and choose the very best.
The deadline for applications is March 12th 2025 and interviews will be held March 24th.
December 2024
If you’re walking on North Hills in January, you may see a digger pulling up tree roots. We’re doing this to prevent the spread of sycamore (an invasive and deep rooted tree) in order to protect the chalk grassland, one of the main habitats that make up Brill Common and one of the reasons the common has been designated a Local Wildlife Site. “Lowland calcareous grassland” is a rare and disappearing habitat; a “habitat of principal importance” according to Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities (NERC) Act. Good quality chalk grassland is potentially the most botanically diverse habitat in the UK, with up to 50 plant species found in a very small area. Sadly, about 80% of species-rich chalk grassland has been lost to agricultural improvement since the Second World War, and Brill Common remains one of the few such areas left in the area. If we allow the sycamores to grow, wildflowers will be crowded out and this habitat will be lost for ever .
The goats have been moved to enable grazing in a different area. They will be getting a new temporary winter shelter; North Hill is quite exposed and the goats are not getting any younger. The shelter will be in situ just until March. Goats graze in a different way to cattle - they love brambles! - so they are a vital part of the conservation grazing regime which enables and supports the rich variety of habitats we are so lucky to have.
You may also notice sporadic bird ringing on North Hills in the coming months. We are recording which birds are attracted to this unique habitat. Please keep your dog on a lead if asked to do so.