Dunston Common is an historic common and a registered County Wildlife Site (CWS 268). The site is owned and managed by South Norfolk District Council and has permissive access. The site is a mosaic of woodland and grassland, lying mostly on acid soils. The woodland is largely made up of silver birch and oak, with an understorey of gorse and willow. Grassy tracks through the woodland support English bluebells, forget-me-not, dog’s mercury and foxgloves. The open areas contain a mixture of grasses including sheep’s fescue, red fescue and early hair grass, and plants such as lady’s bedstraw, harebell and sheep’s sorrel.
Please note this site is not a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve.
Habitat description from the Wildlife in Common Survey
The 4 hectares of common lies just south of Stoke Lane, and is owned and managed by South Norfolk Council. The rest of CWS 268 continues north of the road. This area has always been part of lands of the Dunston estate. There has been a house/hall nearby since mediaeval times. It seems that the common was always on the edge of their land and could have originally been part of Common Close Plantation.
The 19th Century Ordnance Survey maps show the site as open grassland with scattered trees, very similar in appearance to the neighbouring estate parkland. The eastern pond is shown on the 1840 Tithe map, being somewhat larger and connected to the Dunston Estate ponds in the south. The 1909 Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society report on The Commons of Norfolk by W.G. Clarke records the site simply as ‘Pasture, furze, scrub and some trees’. The 1946 aerial map shows the common with less tree cover than the present day.
This is a varied site lying mostly on acid soils. It is a mosaic of woodland and grassland and is well used by the public. The canopy of woodland areas is largely birch (
Betula pendula), oak (
Quercus robur), occasional sycamore (
Acer pseudoplatanus), holly (
Ilex aqufolium) and rowan (
Sorbus aucuparia). Old trees are scarce and much of the canopy is made up of dense stands of immature trees. There is little shrub layer, except occasional coppiced hazel
(Corylus avellana), some hawthorn (
Crataegus monogyna) and low bramble (
Rubus fruticosus agg.) in places. Ground flora is quite sparse. Gorse (
Ulex europaeus) and sallow (
Salix cinerea) form an understorey over a damp ground flora of soft rush (
Juncus effusus), creeping soft grass (
Holcus mollis), lords-and-ladies (
Arum maculatum) and red campion (
Silene dioica). The 1995 survey records that the grassy tracks and drain banks supported bluebell (
Hyacinthoides non-scripta), violets
(Viola sp.), forget-me-not
(Myosotis spp.), dog's mercury (
Mercurialis perennis) and foxglove (
Digitalis purpurea).
The southern area of woodland has occasional coppiced hazel, with some bracken (
Pteridium aquilinum), raspberry (
Rubus idaeus) and nettle (
Urtica dioica). Pignut (
Conopodium majus) is rare in the south. A conifer plantation occurs in the south-west corner, with mainly bare ground under the trees. Ground ivy (
Glechoma hederacea) is abundant in places, and there is a small patch of native bluebell (
Hyacinthoides non-scrpita). Garden escapees here include frequent variegated archangel (
Lamiastrum galeobdolon subsp. argentatum), rare green alkanet (
Pentaglottis sempervirens), snowdrop (
Galanthus sp.), daffodil (
Narcissus agg.) and hydrid bluebell (
Hyacinthoides x massartiana).
Grassland areas are well drained and dominated by red fescue (
Festuca rubra), Yorkshire fog (
Holcus lanatus) and common cat's ear (
Hypochoeris radicata). Sheep's sorrel (
Rumex acetosella) is abundant. The main area of acid grassland is maintained as a recreational area for children. This short tight sward supports heath bedstraw (
Galium saxatile), field woodrush
(Luzula campestris), parsley piert (
Aphanes arvense), neat feather moss (
Pseudoscleropodium purum) and springy turf moss (
Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus). Sheep's fescue (
Festuca ovina), early hair grass (
Aira praecox), oval sedge (
Carex ovalis) and heath grass (
Danthonia decumbens) were recorded in the last survey but not seen in 2019.
A small pond lies to the west and supports soft rush, gypsywort (
Lycopus europaeus), lesser spearwort (
Ranunculus flammula), bittersweet (
Solanum dulcamara) and the invasive species New Zealand pygmyweed (
Crassula helmsii). It also supports common water-crowfoot (
Ranunculus aquatilis) and water starwort sp. (
Callitriche agg.). The pond is surrounded by tall vegetation which includes rosebay willowherb (
Chamerion angustifolium), great willowherb (
Epilobium hirsutum), nettle and honeysuckle (
Lonicera periclymenum).
The north-west Dunston common is kept short mown as amenity grassland.