The flora and fauna of Woodchester and Selsley

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The area around Woodchester and Selsley provides a rich diversity of habitats ranging from windswept scarp faces at Selsley, through ancient beech woods, to small lakes and aquatic environments, old hedgerows, and the verges alongside roads.
Limestone has the most significant affect on the wildlife. The soils are thin, well drained and alkaline, which clearly encourages calciphile plants. Such soils are ideal for beech trees whose roots spread wide but not deep, and there are a number of ancient woods in both parishes. Beech trees grow tall, and form a lofty dense canopy that restricts the emergence of undergrowth because it reduces the light falling on to the ground. None the less, spring in the woods is a palette of colour with wood anemone, bluebell, violets, wood spurge and wild garlic all flourishing. Elsewhere in the parish, the Fullers Earth Clay, and drifts of sand all have an impact. And the drystone walls offer their own distint habitat.
There are many 'ancient woodland' indicator species to be found, some of these are listed below. In total, over 400 species have flora have been recorded in Woodchester Parish ( in a survey undertaken during 2000) - although these include escapees from gardens.
Fungi or mushrooms are to be seen, often in great numbers, in the beech woods during autumn, and up to fifty easily spotted species can be found. These include the highly poisonous Deathcap toadstool so be careful - precise identification is necessary. However a more benign and characteristic fungus is the Puff Ball which will puff out spores when squeezed.
Foxes are becoming increasingly abundant in the area. As elsewhere they are becoming semi-urbanised but, with rabbit populations also increasing, there is plentiful food.
Despite the ever present threat of baiting, badgers are common all over the Cotswolds. There are a number of sets to be found and nothing can be more pleasing than watching badgers emerge at dusk to begin their night-time forage for food.
The squirrel is represented by the Grey; the Red squirrel disappeared from the area in the 1940s.
Roe deer have become more numerous over the last ten years and in some instances are becoming quite a pest as they damage young saplings. The elusive Munkjac has also been spotted.
The landscape history of the Cotswolds is fairly complex and during much of the medieval period the area was dominated by open field agriculture which has largely obliterated evidence of earlier enclosure patterns. The extent of the cultivated open fields varied considerably throughout this period and it is particularly difficult to identify areas of permanent pasture or meadow land, as relict ridge and furrow have not survived in many of the level flood plains, steep valley sides, or high wold tops, which would have been most suitable for such use. Some large areas of un-enclosed common pasture survive, Selsley Common is one example, and on the other side of the valley is Minchinhampton Common - although neither of these are known to have been solely used for grazing throughout the medieval period, and both were wooded in part at that time.
From the fourteenth century open field agriculture declined and large areas of the open fields, either reverted to, or were converted to, permanent pasture to support the expanding Cotswolds wool industry. The precise limits between late and post medieval sheep pasture and open fields is generally obscured by the pattern of large regular fields, usually bounded by dry stone walls, which represent the organized (generally Parliamentary) enclosure of the remaining open fields and pastures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Evidence of more piecemeal enclosure, generally by local arrangement from the fifteenth century, is represented by smaller, less regular fields, which frequently reflect elements of the preceding open field system, and are often bounded by thick hedges. These are found around Woodchester Village. Some names include The Castle, Sharescomb, Oxleaze, Fourteen Acre and Hole Ground.

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A list of birds found in and around Woodchester in the early 1800s
 

  Observations were carried out between 1995 and 1998.
 
 

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Selsley Common

Selsley Common is grazed, hill-top land in common ownership. It is a lovely but bracing area to walk, taking in extensive views over the Severn Valley that stretch to the Black Mountains, the Brecon Beacons and, to the north west, the Malvern Hills.
The open grassland is awash with wildlife. Flowers include the Kidney Vetch, Birds Foot Trefoil, Scabious and Ox-Eye Daisey. In the disused quarries Herb Robert and Eye Bright can be found.
On the top of the Common, the thinner soils support alkaline loving plants: Horseshoe Vetch, Rock Roses, Wild Thyme, Marjoram and the Clustered Bellflower. If you are lucky you will find both the Early Purple Orchid and the Common Spotted.
Often when you walk, you can still here the melodic song of the Skylark and the Meadow Pipits and in summer the butterflies can be seen in profusion with species such as Meadow Browns, Marbled Whites and Common Blues in abundance.
In 1831 there was some attempt to wall part of the Common but this met with great local opposition and the walls were pulled down. In 1852 a second plan was proposed to enclose the land and once again this was vigorously opposed as the letter below indicates:
 

The Common covers some 160 acres. It was first mapped in  1762 and had an estimated area of 167 acres. Among the features noted are a 'Rabbits Burrow', 'Tumps Quarry' and various quarries and cottages. Across the Common are the remains of quarries which were the source of local building stone for many centuries, the last quarry being worked at least until the 1930s.
There is also the remains of a long barrow called the Toots built during the Neolithic age some 5000 years ago.
Of further interest are the remnants of a camp that was established by soldiers during the 13th century. For some time these pits and small mounds were thought to be the dwellings of  a prehistoric tribe but in 1942 a survey was carried out by Captain H.S. Gracie. He found a series of charcoal patches where huts had been constructed; in each of the huts excavated he found potsherds and he dated the site to the mid 13th century and concluded that it had only been occupied for a brief period most likely by troops loyal to Edward (later Edward I) using Selsley Hill as a look-out during the Baron's War - the civil war between Henry III and a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort.
 
 

Cows on Selsley Common

The Beech Woods
On the hills around Selsley and Woodchester can be found many ancient beech woodlands with nationally and locally rare flora.
Many of the woods are part of prominent landscape features and are recognised as key wildlife sites and are part of the UK Biodiversity Plan. In addition the whole area is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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Flora recorded in the surrounding beech woods: 1999.

Rabbit Warren Wood
 

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There are three ancient woods within the parish that are indicative examples of the glories of the Cotswold wood: Dark, Dingle and Rabbit Warren. There is a legend that Dark Wood is derived from the old English 'Blacelawes' meaning the burial place of heroes.
Beechwood is now the characteristic tree of the Cotswolds. It is believed that it first came to Britain during the neolithic period perhaps deliberately introduced by the neolithic colonies that had migrated to England from the continent. Not least, the beech provided nourishment for their pigs.
Today, the beech trees are one of the great assets of the Cotswolds, cloaking the tops of the scarp face and valleys with a shroud of colour that changes through the season. From a bright emerald green as the first leaves appear through to the flaming browns and oranges as they turn in autumn and, when the leaves scatter to the ground, we are left with the blue grey pewter of the massive trunks.
Most of the beech woods are dominated by beech unlike other woods where the trees will be more mixed. Its surface root system and dense canopy suppresses other growth, although in woods such as Rabbit Warren, action is taken to clear areas to encourage growth of other associated flora.
Natural beech is at its western limit in the Cotswolds and it is the south Cotswolds which have the finest woods.
Gloucestershire has always been a well wooded county. At the time of the Domesday Book it was calculated that England was approximately 15% woodland whereas Gloucestershire was 50% and the most heavily wooded county. By the mid 19th century this had only declined to around 30%. (Source: Oliver Rackham, Trees and Woodland.)

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The following article was published in a Bath University account by an unnamed researcher. To ensure that it will remain available, I have reproduced part of it here but please note that permission for further reproduction is prohibited.

"After realizing my interest in the bats, I decided that I would do an investigative study on them
and possibly design an artificial roost. The information below was gathered at Woodchester from the information supplied in the Bat Room at the Mansion.
A gentleman by the name of Roger Ransome has been studying Woodchester's bats since 1959,
in one of the longest running mammal studies ever carried out. He has installed incubators in the
bat roosts which help more bats to survive each year. More recently, with the help of the Bat
Conservation Trust, Roger and the Woodchester Mansion Trust have installed infra-red cameras in the roost to assist with the study and understanding of these fascinating animals. Discoveries
made at Woodchester Mansion have been used in advertising on conservation worldwide.
A society which has also been involved with the bats at Woodchester is The Bat Conservation
Trust, the only national organization solely devoted to the conservation of bats and their habitats. The Bat Conservation, 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG    02076 272629
www.bats.org.ukenquiries@bats.org.uk

Woodchester Mansion and it's surrounding valley have been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest, mainly because of a maternity roost of Greater Horseshoe bats in the building. These Greater Horseshoe bats are protected by law. The Mansion has lain abandoned for many years in the sheltered and isolated valley and has become a perfect habitat for this secretive species. It also harbours two other species of bats.
Pipistrelle Bats - Britain's commonest and tiniest bat. Weighs just 3-8g, less than a one pound coin. Can eat 3000 midges in one night, from city centres to the deepest countryside. Population is thought to have declined by over 70% in the last 30 years.
Greater Horseshoe Bats - Fist sized bat weighing 17-34g. Feeds on chafers, dung-beetles, moths and caddis-flies in deciduous woods, over pasture or water and along hedgerows. Population has declined by over 90% in last 100 years.
Lesser Horseshoe Bats - Plum sized bat weighing 5-9g. Feeds on flies (mainly midges) and small moths in dense woodland, parklands and over wetlands and pasture. Population has shown marked decline and in Britain is only found in SW England and Wales.
The Greater Horseshoe like all British bats, feeds exclusively on insects. If food is plentiful it can catch a stomach full in a one hour feeding period which represents 4-5g of insects or about 25% of it's body weight. The bats leave the roost to feed  for about an hour at dusk and dawn; hence they can consume as much as half of their body weight in insects every day. The simplest and least obtrusive way to study a bats diet is to examine its droppings under a microscope. In the case of the Greater Horseshoe this reveals a cyclical pattern of feeding. They start on a diet of beetles and cockchafers in the Spring, changing to large moths (of which they tend to consume the soft fleshy abdomen) from June-August. Finally they switch to dung-beetles - and also crane-flies - in the Autumn. During the Winter they feed mainly on the readily available dung-beetle, parasitic wasps and caddis-flies. Few insects are able to fly if the air temperature falls below 10C - which normally happens in late October as the days shorten. In April and May it rises back above 10C, at least in day time. The bats have to be very adaptable too, as the air temperature can vary from year to year. Warm spells and higher insect activity in Winter allow bats with low fat stores to avoid starvation.
The activity pattern of the Greater Horseshoe bat is very variable. It is dependant on many things, especially food supplies. The highest energy use is in flight, where the heart rate is of the order of 700 beats per minute. During flight bats expend more energy than when in a torpid state, so it is only worth feeding when the insect supply is plentiful. When hibernating the heart rate falls as low as 10 beats per minute and the breathing becomes slow and irregular. In order to survive the Winter, fat is stored for hibernation during late September and October when a Greater Horseshoe can increase from 17-24g in two weeks. If the bat has not stored enough fat by the end of October it will continue to feed later during hibernation. Fat bats tend to lose more weight than thin bats so they all end up at approximately the same weight in the Spring. By then they will typically have lost a quarter to a third of their body weight.
Newly born bats weigh about 6g which is about 30% of their mother's weight; they are pink with short grey  fur on the back, and have rubbery finger bones. The wings are small, but the feet are fully grown, with strong claws for gripping the roost. The face is quite well formed, but the eyes are closed. They grow very quickly and, by 21 days old, they weigh 15-16g. Between days 20 and 28 they became skilful fliers. From 28 days they leave the roost and start to catch their food
independently of their mothers. They stay close to the roost (<100m), but rapidly increase their range as their ultrasonic capabilities are completed. By 45 days they travel about 1.5km from the roost, and reach adult distances  of 2.2km by almost 60 days.
Both female and male bats can live for up to 30 yrs. The oldest Woodchester Mansion bat caught was  at least 25 yrs old, and this female gave birth. If a bat reaches the age of 7 or 8 it has a very high survival rate. Over 80% of adult females survive from one winter to the next. Most deaths occur at weaning or when the female first breeds. The number of Horseshoe bats in this country has only recently started to decline since the 1950's. The two main factors contributing to this are the disturbance of  natural roosts and the increase in intensive agricultural  practice including loss of permanent pasture (and also the increased use of insecticides).
Bats traditionally move between the same summer maternity and hibernatory roosts each year. The Greater Horseshoe bat hibernates in places such as caves, mines and increasingly buildings. The decline in the number of bat roosts is due to disturbance by human activities, development / barn conversions or re-roofing, the loss of hedgerows which provide travel routes along which bats fly to their feeding sites, the infilling or capping of old mines, the use of remedial timber
treatments in roofs at inappropriate times.
Greater Horseshoe bats are selective in their diet. Favourite items are larger beetles (especially dung-beetles and cockchafers), moths, caddis-flies and crane-flies. They need blocks of ancient semi-natural woodland alongside grazed pastures, and benefit from wetland areas, which should be connected by sheltered flyways linking up important feeding areas. Bat food sources have been affected by the reduction in insect prey due to intensive agricultural systems. They include the use of pesticides, loss and over management of hedgerows, including annual flail cutting, which destroys sheltered commuting routes and feeding perches. In the Spring and Summer breeding females usually choose old barns or houses with suitably warm attics. The building must have cellars or nearby caves so that the bats can quickly move to a lower temperature if insect numbers decline. When the weather is warm Horseshoe bats gather in large active bundles in the attics. If a sudden cold spell occurs they move into cellars or caves and become inactive or torpid. In Autumn and Winter they start to hibernate in cellars, tunnels, caves and disused mines, as long as the location provides a steady temperature between 6-12C. Conditions outside the cave are also important as they often feed during the hibernation period. South facing slopes, cattle pasture with copses and windbreaks seem to offer the best conditions. Besides providing the right temperature range, the caves and similar places offer total darkness from predators and the damp air is essential to prevent their wings from drying out.
Greater Horseshoe bats do not just fly into any cave or mine to hibernate, even if the conditions are right. There seem to be three main types of cave. The first is occupied by first year bats and a few second year bats, The second is occupied by bats aged between two and six years, The last is occupied by an adult male who is visited by a number of females for short periods in October, November and April when mating occurs. Up to 10 females may be found with a particular male over several Winters. In the Summer breeding females gather together and adult males are usually absent. After weaning, the young are abandoned by their mothers in early September and remain in the breeding site until October with a few of the Second Years, which may act as guides for feeding and finding caves for hibernation.
Echolocation is a method of sensory perception by which certain animals, including whales, seals, dolphins and bats, orientate themselves to their surroundings. They detect obstacles, communicate with others, and find food in this way. Bats send out a series of short high pitched sounds using their mouths or noses. These sounds travel away from the bat and then bounce off objects and surfaces in the bat's path creating an echo. The echo returns to the bat, allowing it to assess an object's size, shape, direction, distance and motion. This echolocation system is so accurate that bats can detect insects the size of gnats and objects as thin as a human hair. Almost all echo-locating calls are out of the range of human hearing. Most of the squeaks and squawks bats make in the roost are not echolocation but social calls. If human ears could hear the echolocation of bats the night would be very noisy as some bats 'shout' at 110 decibels (like a smoke alarm) while others 'whisper' at 60 decibels (human conversation), scientists are studying bats to find out how they, and other animals, use echolocation so that this system could be adopted to help blind people detect objects with sound. Bats are not blind but use echolocation to navigate. They hang upside down in nooks and crannies. Hibernate in Winter, some bats stay dormant for up to eighty days. Bats catch up to 300 insects per hour whilst feeding.
Studies of the Greater Horseshoe bat show that they are exceedingly agile and fly very close to the ground reaching speeds of 30 km/h. As the bats leave the roost to feed each one tends to travel in the same direction, at the same height, almost as if they are following a path in the air. As they only leave the roost for about an hour they cannot  travel more than 15 km on each sortie. Winter movements are rarely more than 10 km. The longest journey they will undertake is between the Summer and Winter roosts; up to 40 km and a maximum of 64 km.

Links
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Plants in Gloucestershire
Woodland Trust

Contents:

• Introduction and Description
• Home Page
• A Brief History
• Neolithic History
• The Romans and Woodchester Villa
• King Arthur, Myths and Legends
• Anglo Saxon History
• History of  Woodchester's Churches
• 1999 Selsley Electoral Roll
• Woodchester Views (photographs)
• Woodchester Mansion
• Flora and Fauna
• Selsley Church and William Morris
• Pictures of Selsley Church
• Journals, Poetry and Literature
• Woodchester Village Statistics
• The Woollen Industry
• Genealogical Information
• Maps and Ephemera