One of my favourite wild places is Great Cornard Country Park – a wonderful spot on the southern tip of Great Cornard where the houses run out and the countryside takes over.
For the past 15 years, Sudbury Common Lands Charity rangers with the help of volunteers have been managing the park with nature in mind, on behalf of its owners Great Cornard Parish Council. Wildflower meadows have been raked and cleared to aid more delicate species; footpaths widened to create sunny glades for butterflies and reptiles; hedges have been repaired and patches of scrub left to spread, providing valuable habitat for birds and small mammals.
Now all this hard work has been recognised, as the park has recently been designated a County Wildlife Site (CWS).
County Wildlife Sites play a crucial role in conserving Suffolk’s biodiversity and are often designated because they support characteristic or threatened species or habitats. According to the Suffolk Biodiversity Information Service, there are more than 950 County Wildlife Sites in Suffolk, amounting to around 11,000 hectares and covering almost 3% of the county.
And while the County Wildlife Site designation is non-statutory, it does recognise the high value of a site for wildlife. Here at the Sudbury Common Lands Charity we see this award as a badge of honour.
Flora and fauna
According to Graham Hart, a conservation advisor at Suffolk Wildlife Trust, who led the assessment panel, there were a number of factors that helped Cornard Country Park gain CWS status.
Much thanks must go to the Lavenham Natural History Group whose survey of the park revealed an incredible list of wildflowers including more than 100 bee orchids as well as six pyramidal orchids, their bright magenta spikes pushing up through the grasses.
Other floral finds include the pink and purples of field scabious and knapweed, the sunny yellows of yellow rattle and lady’s bedstraw, and the delicate white of oxeye daisies. Marjoram, wild basil, and corn mint are also in abundance, bringing a sweet scent to the air in the summer.
“This sheer diversity is a testament to the management that has allowed a rich and natural flora to flourish,” said Graham. The management plan was originally devised in 2009 by retired Commons Lands Charity senior ranger Adrian Walters and today is overseen by current rangers Alex and Aaron who run regular working parties of volunteers in the park.
And where there are wildflowers, there are insects. I’ve spent many happy hours taking in the butterflies that inhabit the park during the warmer months. This summer I was particularly taken by the high number of common blues to be found flitting among the vegetation.
Several summers ago, it was grasshoppers that caught my attention in the Dane’s Hole area of the park. It had been years since I’d seen so many. As I walked through the grass, they were jumping out of my way in their multitudes. A closer inspection of the world at ground level revealed scores of ants’ nests and hundreds of tiny spiders – creatures most visitors to the park pass by, unaware of this other world a few feet from them.
Wider landscape
A thank you must also go to the Cornard Wildlife & Environment Group and Great Cornard Parish Council for their work and commitment to improving the park for nature. Thank you also to volunteer recorder Debbie Ping who, among other things, has confirmed the presence of common lizard, grass snake and slow worm in the park, as well as barn owls and kestrels.
The park’s close vicinity to Cornard Mere – a wetland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) only a few hundred yards away across a field – is another reason it was awarded CWS status, as it provides vital connecting habitat across the wider landscape. The panel also felt the park’s mix of habitats very much counted in its favour; from fragments of ancient woodland and vibrant lowland meadows, to areas of scrub and dense, old hedgerows that act as corridors for wildlife.
When the panel of ecologists and conservationists made their visit to the park this May, they heard a cuckoo holding forth nearby before a nightingale announced itself, singing brightly from within an area of scrub. It was as if the wildlife was putting on a show for the VIPs.
The success in encouraging more wildlife to the park is especially pleasing, considering that the location is used by so many people of all generations. It shows that if we respect spaces, we can live in harmony with nature. It also means that our visits to the park can be more enjoyable and edifying.
Or as Graham put it: “County Wildlife Site Status means a location has a high recreational and educational value - something that should not be underestimated.”
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