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Earl's Hill is without doubt still the finest of the Wildlife Trust's
reserves. It was given to the then Conservation Trust by Dr & Mrs Chitty
in 1962, although half of the total area (Pontesford Hill) was signed
over to the Forestry Commission on a 999 year lease. The reserve is some
42 hectares of grassland and woodland, rising from 160m in the valley
of the Habberley Brook to 320m at the summit.
An aerial photograph in Sinker's Flora (p. 167), taken in 1952, shows
Earl's Hill at its finest. There was a small amount of woodland along
the brook, and the neighbouring Oaks Wood was not yet felled and replanted,
but the slopes and plateaux of Earl's Hill and Pontesford Hill were all
closely grazed grassland. Since then Pontesford Hill and much of Oaks
Wood has been planted up with conifers, and scrub has advanced up the
eastern slope of Earl's Hill, changing its character significantly.
The oldest record for Earl's Hill is by Edward Williams, who recorded
Luzula sylvatica, Great Wood-rush, in "woods about Ponsort Hill"
in about 1800. This species is an indicator of ancient woodland, which
lines the brook and extends along the escarpment of Oaks Wood to the east.
L. sylvatica still occurs within the reserve, but must have
been particularly abundant on the acid soils of Oaks Wood, while it is
only frequent in the deeper soils on the lower slopes of the base-rich
Earl's Hill.
William Leighton recorded seventeen species at Earl's Hill in the 1830s,
and an additional six species at Lyd Hole. This is a waterfall along the
Habberley Brook a short distance below the reserve, which was originally
given to the Trust as part of the reserve, but was handed over to a local
landowner, as it was an isolated portion. This may not have been a very
wise decision, as it is quite a species-rich area.
Leighton's list for Earl's Hill is given below. He made a comment about
the Urtica dioica, which on the summit of the hill was at the highest
point where he had seen it. Among his records are some of the important
plants of the site. The Sedum forsterianum is significant, as it
is now considered a nationally scarce species. It grows on the scree on
the east of the hill, where it is slowly being overwhelmed by woodland,
and it formerly grew on the south side of the hill, too. The list is dominated
by plants of U1 Festuca ovina-Agrostis capillaries-Rumex
acetosella grassland, showing that the habitat then must have been
very similar to that seen in the photograph of 1952. This U1 grassland
is one of the key features of the reserve, but a lot has been lost in
recent decades to scrub encroachment. It may soon be embarrassing to find
that the best remaining areas of grassland are outside the reserve in
the farmland.
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At Lyd Hole he recorded Hypericum androsaemum, Tutsan, Hypericum
pulchrum, Slender St. John's-wort, Jasione montana, Sheep's-bit,
Hieracium "murorum" & H. "sylvaticum" (hawkweeds),
Carex pendula, Pendulous Sedge and Deschampsia flexuosa,
Wavy Hair-grass.
The only other record for Earl's Hill listed in Leighton's Flora is by
Thomas Bodenham, who found Hypericum humifusum, Trailing St.
John's-wort, "at the foot of Pontesford Hill." Curiously, it had never
been recorded there again until 1998, which shows that it is always worth
looking for plants, even in well-recorded sites.
In 1888 Dr John Fraser of Wolverhampton found the uncommon hawkweed Hieracium
lasiophyllum. This is known in Shropshire in only two sites, and has
been recorded at Earl's Hill at many times since then. It grows on the
east side, and may eventually be threatened by the advancement of the
woodland.
The bryophyte records for Earl's Hill are superb. From 1891 to 1906 William
Hamilton and Richard Benson made numerous surveys and recorded dozens
of species. Their thorough survey was then repeated by Martha Newton,
Francis Rose, Charles Sinker and Gordon Graham in the 1960s, again by
Jeff Duckett and Martha Newton in the 1970s, and finally by Ron Porley
in the 1980s. This gives us a superb account of the bryophytes and seems
to show an increase in diversity. For instance, the rare moss Grimmia
montana was only recorded in the 1980s. It occurs on and around the rock
outcrops at the summit of the hill, which was apparently quite scrubbed-over
in the 1960s, when the Wildlife Trust acquired the reserve. Charles Sinker's
plan to burn off this gorse scrub was entirely successful, and since then
sheep grazing has kept this area clear. So here we have an apparent example
of conservation management achieving its full potential of creating the
desired habitat through good management, and being rewarded by the arrival
of a rare species. If there had been a Biodiversity Action Plan in the
1970s, this would have been heralded as a great accomplishment…
There are a few scattered records over the years. For instance, W. Yelland
apparently recorded Vicia sylvatica, Wood Vetch, near Pontesford
Hill in 1893. It has never been recorded in the vicinity again. A.G. Lawson
first recorded the Ophioglossum vulgatum, Adder's-tongue, in 1894.
This is associated with the richer grassland swards on the east side of
the hill, but has almost vanished from the reserve. It is still abundant
in the nearby farmland, however. Myosotis discolor, Changing
Forget-me-not, was first seen here by Hamilton in 1896. This is another
species typical of the U1 grassland.
Honor Leeke (later Mrs Pendlebury) wrote a very useful account of Earl's
Hill in 1939, which lists, among other things, Orobanche rapum-genistae,
Greater Broomrape, Genista tinctoria, Dyer's Greenweed, Menyanthes
trifoliata, Bogbean, Lychnis flos-cuculi, Ragged Robin, and
Kickxia elatine, Sharp-leaved Fluellen. These all appear to have
been lost from the hill since then. One of Pendlebury's comments is quite
intriguing. She points out that there is no Calluna vulgaris anywhere
on Earl's Hill. This is in contrast to the comment in Sinker's Flora,
page 98, where it is suggested that some of the ant hills "may even bear
a clump of heather." In fact they don't - at least not any more.
The first record for Lathraea squamaria, Toothworth, was by J.B.
Johnson in 1939. It seems to have migrated across the reserve since then,
starting out at Earlsdale, to the north of the reserve, and moving southwards
along the course of the Habberley Brook. It is also becoming more numerous
- one of the species to benefit from the increase in woodland. In 1999
Richard Gulliver counted 55 spikes.
Charles Sinker found Geranium sanguineum, Bloody Crane's-bill,
on the scree in 1958. That has now gone. So has his Dianthus deltoides,
Maiden Pink, and Botrychium lunaria, Moonwort, both probably from
the U1. However, Sinker was also the first to notice the importance of
the woodland. At Earl's Hill there seem to be, remarkably, five different
forms of W8 Fraxinus excelsior-Acer campestre-Mercurialis
perennis woodland. In general this is not an uncommon woodland type
in Shropshire, being the normal climax community on all the more base-rich
dry soils. It can be very species-rich and of considerable conservation
importance, or it can be pretty ordinary and uninteresting. What determines
which it is are its age and its subcommunities.
At Earl's Hill there are two areas where the woodland can be said to
be ancient and semi-natural, and therefore most worthy of conservation.
These areas are the bottom of the valley and the top of the cliffs. In
between, it is all secondary growth that has sprung up since the 1950s.
At the bottom of the valley there is, as Sinker noticed, Circaea x intermedia,
Upland Enchanter's-nightshade. This species is the hybrid between the
ordinary Enchanter's-nightshade C. lutetiana and the Alpine
species, C. alpina. It often occurs in the absence of its
parents, but is thought to indicate areas where C. alpina
was present in the past, when the climate was much colder. As it is now
known to occur at the headwaters of the Habberley Brook, on the Stiperstones,
this is probably the origin of the large population at Earl's Hill - although
it may well have been there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Also in this woodland are some huge old trees of Tilia platyphyllos,
Large-leaved Lime, and T. cordata, Small-leaved Lime, which
are probably also ancient woodland indicators here. This low-lying damp
woodland is of the W8f Allium ursinum and the W8c Deschampsia
cespitosa subcommunities.
At the top of the cliffs are some more trees that have probably been
there for a very long time, owing to their inaccessibility. These include
Sorbus torminalis, Wild Service-tree, and Tilia platyphyllos,
in what we believe is one of the few examples in Shropshire of the W8g
Teucrium scorodonia subcommunity. In between the ancient woodlands
at the top and bottom of the hill are secondary communities of varying
age, including the W8a Glechoma hederacea and the W8d Hedera
helix subcommunities of ash wood.
Conservation
It seems that Earl's Hill has several vegetation communities that give
it its particular character, and also contain most of the species of interest.
The primary ones are the areas of ancient woodland and the richer patches
of grassland. A lot of Earl's Hill, particularly on the west side, is
less interesting, but still valuable, U4 Festuca ovina grassland.
The question for the Wildlife Trust is whether to attempt to control the
advance of the woodland or not. On the one hand, it is generally desirable
to allow areas of ancient woodland to expand, because this probably works
better than creating entirely new woods. On the other hand, the area that
it is expanding into is the area of most ecological importance for its
grassland and bare scree. The Dianthus deltoides, Botrychium
lunaria and Geranium sanguineum have already gone: the Sedum
forsterianum, Ophioglossum vulgatum and Hieracium lasiophyllum
may not be far behind. There isn't really anything in the woodland of
equal value to replace these losses.
The solution, perhaps, should be to allow the woodland to advance so
far and no further. Erect a fence and put a firm boundary to the woodland
edge, cutting and/or grazing the grassland beyond. That will not be easy
to do on the scree, but unfortunately that is where it is most needed.
Of course there are other places in the vicinity where semi-natural woodland
could be re-established - in Oaks Wood, perhaps, or along the valley towards
Lyd Hole Even on Pontesford Hill, where the grassland has largely been
destroyed by the conifer plantations already. These areas are not currently
in conservation management, but with earl's Hill being such an important
site, perhaps they should be amongst the highest priorities for targeting
conservation schemes or future land purchases.
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