Shropshire Wildlife Trust is in talks with the aim of buying what it describes as “one of the county’s largest remaining wild places.” The trust is negotiating with a local estate agent to agree a purchase price for a large part of the 527-acre Catherton Common, near Cleobury Mortimer.
The common includes areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and registered sites of Special Scientific Interest. The trust is applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund and Biffaward for grants to help buy the land, which was put up for sale at the start of the year.
It was keen to buy the whole of the Common, but understands that another purchaser has put in an offer for 100 acres of the land.
“We believe that this person is keen to protect the heathland for the future and we’re hoping we will be able to work together to manage the Common,” said the trust’s development manager John Hughes.
“Catherton needs to be looked after as a whole. This will involve liaising with the 64 commoners to get grazing levels right – a crucial concern if the diversity of plants and other wildlife is to be maintained.”
The common, though unenclosed, is set everywhere with smallholdings each with tiny pastures and meadows, many still delightful with orchids and other interesting plants.
The trust already has a nature reserve on the eastern margin of the Common at Cramer Gutter, with a colony of glorious blue marsh gentians. Moonwort, hare’s-tail cottongrass, pale marsh violets, bristly fingerwort, marsh lousewort and round-leaved sundew are some of the most interesting plants growing on the heathland. Its pools attract the rare keeled skimmer and golden-ringed dragonfly.
It has been described as “one of the most enchanting and botanically-rich places in the county and a place of great tranquillity and power”.
