About The Bramshaw Commons, The Bramshaw Commons are some 1422 acres, lying to the north east of the New Forest, comprising some of the best lowland heath in the country, with woodland, bogs and grass lawns providing a valuable habitat for many rare plants and animals. This very extensive network of manorial wastes and commons on the periphery of the New Forest includes Cadnam and Stocks Cross Greens, and Black Hill, Cadnam, Furzley, Half Moon, Penn and Plaitford Commons. Bramshaw is particularly important for birds such as wood larks, nightjars and dartford warblers, as well as dragonflies.  The manorial wastes, usually Heathland, provided the commoners with timber, fuel and other useful commodities. Today they represent the best surviving example of lowland heath and mire in Europe, still managed by the common grazing of ponies, pigs, donkeys, cattle and sheep In addition, with the aid of volunteers and Trust staff, invasive scots pine and rhododendron have to be cleared regularly to prevent them taking over the open Heathland. Also, to renew the gorse, burning and cutting takes place. Of interest are two Bronze Age Cairns on Plaitford Common, and a twin-bowl barrow on Furzley Common. The Bramshaw heaths and mires are among the most important in the New Forest. The flora is very rich, and includes large populations of penny royal and small fleabane. Long-leaved sundew, marsh st. john's wort and bog asphodel occur in the mires. The dry heaths are particularly good for Dartford warbler and woodlark. The invertebrate fauna is extremely rich: the rare fairy shrimp occurs in a seasonal pool, there is an impressive list of solitary bees and wasps, and rare bugs and weevils inhabit the bogs. There are some rare dead-wood beetles along the wood pasture fringes, and standard Heathland butterflies such as grayling, green hairstreak and silver-studded blue occur. The commons also provide a habitat for the scarce blue-tailed damselfly, raft spider and grasshoppers.   What sort of jobs do we do at Bramshaw? Over the past year few years our main task on these sites has been to help with the scrub management of this site, with the cutting of Silver Birch, Rhododendron, and Scots Pine. We have also helped with bridge building, visitor access and erosion control.       How to find Bramshaw. 1422 acres (575 ha) between Bramshaw, Cadnam and Plaitford, on north edge of New Forest, just S of A36, 10 miles W of Southampton, Hampshire. OS Grid Reference [I84 and 185:SU2717]. CLICK HERE for a map.