#754: -

The tethered grazing you are talking about was carried out by ponies belonging to travellers.

This was almost exclusiveley carried out on the bottom terraceadjacent to the Worcester Road.

The horses where tethered only on grass clearings because that is what horse like to eat, like cattle.

There were only a couple of horses grazing at any one time, if at all.

This was stopped by WCC about 3-5 years ago.

This practice had not changed for 50 years at least before.

So you are trying to say that the felling of all of these mature trees is ok because of the lack of tethered grazing?

If you ask  local travellers, which I suspect you did not, they will confirm the above details and I know who I would rather believe

No wonder you will not give out your real name. These schemes have more holes than a swiss cheese!

Steve McCarron

#757: Steve McCarron - Re:  

 The reason why I made reference to the grazing is that I would have thought that someone who claims to be passionate about the common and also claims to have lived near by would have been aware that a number of gypsey families lived and over wintered on bother the upper and lower common and were evicted in the early 1960s. They grazed a much larger area than in the recent past. The age of the trees indicates that the invasion of trees started post theses evictions and the cessation of their tethered grazing. The opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past has been given by the external funding. The works will look drastic for a while but the common will recover, the heathland plants, heathers and grasses will recolonise and the scars faid. They are already doing so. As a for example I would draw your attention to the sand pit excavated at the back of the carpark where you have removed the fencing which is now indistinct and all but grassed over. If these works are not done then the common will revert to woodland as happened to Newbury Common where grazing ceased during WW2 and never recommenced.