Beetley Common is a County Wildlife Site (CWS 1036), with the main habitat being secondary woodland, which in parts is wet. Past records show that this site had good adder populations, along with common toads and frogs.
Please note this site is not a Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve.
Habitat description from the Wildlife in Common Survey
A semi-natural mature woodland dominated in drier areas by oak
Quercus robur and by alder
Alnus glutinosa in wetter areas. At the entrance to the site is a water pumping station, otherwise it has open public access with a number of paths crossing the site. It was used in the past for cattle grazing and wood cutting but is now occasionally managed by a small group of local volunteers. Historic records from the 1990s (held by the Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service) show that on one occasion a recorder counted 60 individual adders, plus a slow worm. During the Wildlife in Common survey, 2018 and 2019, only one adder was seen and that unfortunately was dead. Live slow worms were, however, recorded.
The centre of the site consists of dense and scattered scrub with blackthorn
Prunus spinosa, hawthorn
Crataegus monogyna and elder
Sambucus nigra, bramble
Rubus fruticosus agg. and crab apple
Malus sylvestris with some young oak and sycamore
Acer pseudoplatanus and silver birch
Betula pendula. Open areas are dominated by tall dense bracken
Pteridium aquilinum with occasional patches of purple moor-grass
Molinia caerulea, heath bedstraw
Galium saxatile and wood sage
Teucrium scorodonia. Patches of oak and silver birch
Betula pendula secondary woodland are encroaching into the remaining open areas. Other scrub species present include rare gorse
Ulex europaeus and broom
Cytisus scoparius.
Along this western margin taller dense blackthorn scrub occurs, but also areas dominated by oak with a more diverse ground flora including dog’s mercury
Mercurialis perennis, herb-Robert Geranium robertianum, wood avens
Geum urbanum and red campion
Silene dioica with ground-ivy
Glechoma hederacea.
Along the northern edge is a band of alder, oak and silver birch, moving east old coppiced alder occurs. Conditions are damper here and a diverse ground flora includes broad buckler-fern
Dryopteris dilatata, wood anemone
Anemone nemorosa, wood meadow-grass
Poa nemoralis and giant fescue
Festuca gigantea. The north-east has dense alder and ash, some of the alder is coppiced; crack willow
Salix fragilis and grey willow
Salix cinerea occur on the eastern edge. The shrub layer includes hawthorn, holly
Ilex aquifolium, rowan
Sorbus aucuparia and young oak. The ground flora includes areas of tall nettle
Urtica dioica with hemp-agrimony
Eupatoria cannabinum and occasional patches of remote sedge
Carex remota, with hedge woundwort
Stachys sylvatica and redshank
Polygonum persicaria. Along eastern side the site is drier oak-birch woodland with mature past coppiced hazel, regenerating oak and patches of gorse and occasional crab apple. The less diverse ground flora includes broad buckler-fern and areas of bramble and bracken with some honeysuckle
Lonicera periclymenum.
There is a small patch of remnant heath to the east of the pumping station, supporting small amounts of bell heather
Erica cinerea, ling
Calluna vulgaris, early hair grass
Aira praecox and sheep’s sorrel
Rumex acetosella.
The south-eastern part of site is secondary oak-birch woodland with more mature oak on the eastern and southern boundaries with some alder. The ground flora and shrub layer is much as the eastern boundary with frequent holly.
Other species occurring locally include common spotted orchid
Dactylorhiza fuchsii, remote sedge
Carex remota, pill sedge
Carex pilulifera and heather
Calluna vulgaris.