The Big Society on Skipwith Common

Charlie Forbes Adam, who owns who manages his family’s Escrick Park Estate, including Skipwith Common, National Nature Reserve (NNR), says ‘I had a vision when I took over the Estate about twenty years ago, which was to restore Skipwith Common to more of an open heathland as it had been when I was a child. 

This has been achieved by working closely with Natural England, as well as community involvement, when The Friends of Skipwith Common was set up in 2003.  Nigel Adams, MP for Selby & Ainsty, celebrated the anniversary of his year in office as an MP by walking round Skipwith Common with the team.  Tango Fawcett, Escrick Park Estate Conservation Consultant, said…‘The joint approach to restoration and management has been invaluable.  We are all constantly bouncing ideas off each other, and when “The Friends of Skipwith Common” became established it fitted the last piece into the jigsaw.  Their input has physically improved the Common, initially by tasks such as removing tonnes of litter, including 29 tonnes of old tyres dumped over the years. Now “The Friends” fulfil a variety of roles, varying from archaeological surveying, to helping with the Hebridean flock, and recently installing waymarker posts for the new routes over Skipwith Common’. 

In addition the Estate has supported the tenant farmers to enter agri-environment schemes, which David Shaw from Natural England commented, ensured that the wildlife on Skipwith Common was not on an island, but linked to adjacent farmland and other areas of high wildlife importance including the nearby Derwent Valley, NNR.