The gorse and the scrub are not just seen as an impediment to grazing but welcomed as attributes of the common.
They vary from heather moorland to agrostis pastures invaded by gorse and bracken.
There were also less planned checks on the scrub succession since gorse fires were a regular occurrence in the 1970s.
Only sheep, goats, donkeys and geese may be grazed and only furze (gorse) or fern may be removed from the common.
Where a quadrat landed on a latrine (see below) or an area of scrub (gorse or rushes), bare rock or standing water, it was ignored and another thrown.
Routine annual management has been carried out to try to suppress bracken colonisation,9 as well as periodic attempts to clear extensive areas of gorse and scrub.
Grassland communities predominated but the different tone and texture in the central portion of the common suggests bracken and gorse colonisation.
But it will go back to what it was before—gorse, fern and brambles—and it is that which makes this problem so urgent.
