Chailey Common is a 169 hectare (417.4 acre) biological site of Special Scientific Interest in the

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

. It is close to the village of North

Chailey Chailey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located 7 miles north of Lewes, on the A272 road from Winchester to Canterbury. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Chailey. The parish consist ...

to the west of

Newick Newick is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road east of Haywards Heath. The parish church, St. Mary's, dates mainly from the Victorian era, but still has a No ...

. The site was notified in 1985 under the

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom implemented to comply with European Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds. In short, the act gives protection to native species (especia ...

. It is also a Local Nature Reserve. The site consists of five enclosures: Romany Ridge Common, Red House Common, Pound Common, Memorial Common and Land End Common. The areas are maintained for species diversity through careful grazing and management. Lane End Common, () was separated from the bulk of the Chailey Common enclosures in the nineteenth century. Its heathy and bosky spaces are now fenced and grazed by mild park cattle. The Common supports various

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

communities, including ling,

cross-leaved heath ''Erica tetralix'', the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe, from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe ...

and

bell heather ''Erica cinerea'', the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe. The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 5 for most nectar produ ...

and other rare botanical species. Fifty years ago Garth Christian saved the marsh gentian from going extinct from the area and its trumpets full of tiny stars can still be seen there today. Meadow thistle,

sundew ''Drosera'', which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genus, genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. 2 volumes. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucil ...

and

round-leaved sundew ''Drosera rotundifolia'', the round-leaved sundew, roundleaf sundew, or common sundew, is a carnivorous species of flowering plant that grows in bogs, marshes and fens. One of the most widespread sundew species, it has a circumboreal distribution ...

are still present in the area thanks to careful nursing and it is one of the few sites left in the Sussex Weald with

bog asphodel ''Narthecium ossifragum'', commonly known as bog asphodel, Lancashire asphodel or bastard asphodel, is a species of flowering plant in the family Nartheciaceae. It is native to Western Europe, found on wet, boggy moorlands up to about in ele ...

. The botanical richness in turn supports important and rare invertebrate including

bloody-nosed beetle The bloody-nosed beetle (''Timarcha tenebricosa''), also called blood spewer or blood-spewing beetle, is a leaf beetle native to Europe. Description ''T. tenebricosa'' measures 15–20 mm in length, is blue-black in colour and is both ...

s, minotaur beetles, purse web spiders and black headed velvet ants. Up the food chain, the area can also support rare bird species, including

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

and

nightjar Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tal ...

. The habitat also supports various

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...

which are rare in the county. Chailey Common was one of the last sites in the

Sussex Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in t ...

that you could find

Silver Studded Blue The silver-studded blue (''Plebejus argus'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It has bright blue wings rimmed in black with white edges and silver spots on its hindwings, lending it the name of the silver-studded blue. ''P. argus'' can be ...

butterflies, but they seem to be gone from the area now.

References

Chailey Common Sites of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex Local Nature Reserves in East Sussex {{EastSussex-geo-stub

See also

References