Plain View Traditional Geocache

This cache brings you to one of plains of Bookham Common. Cows graze here freely in the summer season. When it has rained a lot make sure you wear wellies as this little stream can become a marsh or even a pond on the odd week a year. We like to call this area the 'Grimpen Mire'. This cache is placed with kind permission of the National Trust, and they have kindly preserved the cache when they chopped down the tree it was in. It's now in a new hiding place.... THANK YOU!

Watch out for the cattle! You are now in their territory, although they are usually very calm. The grassland plains have the greatest diversity of wildlife on the commons. Here, the wide variety of plant species attract immense numbers of insects that are in turn a food source for the numerous birds that shelter and nest in the protection of the thorny scrub. You will find lots of rabbits here, the occasional pheasant and the Purple Emperor butterfly.

In the past the commons were wide-open and heavily grazed by the villagers' cattle and innumerable rabbits. As the grazng became uneconomic and the rabbits caught myxomatosis, coarse grasses, scrub and young trees invaded rapidly. As a result many interesting sun loving plants were shaded out, reducing the numbers of invertebrates and birds that depended on them. With careful management of the scrub and the re-introduction of cattle grazing, the Friends of Bookham Common and the National Trust are working to bring back and maintain this diversity of the past. Rabbits have definitely re-appeared.