About the reserve

This is the only remaining area of former medieval common land associated with the historic area of the Wyre Forest and forms a small but important part of the wider Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).  Visitors will find a transition between high forest and open acid grassland, scrub and wet flushes.  As such, it provides suitable habitat for many uncommon species of plant, animal and invertebrates.

Worcestershire has lost most of its heathland and Pound Green's geology provides a different environment from the more sandy heathlands around the Kidderminster area.  To restore the common we have grazing cattle and aim to mimic the subsistence agriculture that kept the common open in the past.

The common was used by Edgar Chance in his 1920s survey and filming of cuckoos.  For the first time he showed that the female birds lay their eggs directly into the hosts' nest (at Pound Green Common this is meadow pipits). Sadly, numbers of both cuckoo and meadow pipits have since declined.