Norton Common is a 25.7-hectare park and Local Nature Reserve in the centre of Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire. It is owned and managed by North Hertfordshire District Council, and the declaring authority is Hertfordshire County Council. [1] [2]
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in southern England. It is bordered by Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region.
North Hertfordshire District Council is the local authority for the North Hertfordshire non-metropolitan district of England, the United Kingdom. North Hertfordshire covers the northern part of Hertfordshire, in the East of England region. The Council's offices are in Letchworth, one of the largest settlements in the district.
Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the elections in 2017, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, which has 50 councillors, versus 19 Liberal Democrats and 9 Labour councillors. It is a member of the East of England Local Government Association.
The common has diverse wildlife including wildflowers in meadows, and black squirrel, muntjac deer, and birds such as chiffchaff and blackcap in woodland. The Pix Brook, which is fed by mineral-rich springs, provides areas of marshland. [1] [3]
The black squirrel occurs as a melanistic subgroup of both the eastern gray squirrel and the fox squirrel. Their habitat extends throughout the Midwestern United States, in some areas of the Northeastern United States, Eastern Canada, and also in the United Kingdom. The overall population of black squirrels is small when compared to that of the gray squirrel. The rarity of the black squirrel has caused many people to admire them, and the black squirrels enjoy great affection in some places as mascots.
The common chiffchaff, or simply the chiffchaff, is a common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds in open woodlands throughout northern and temperate Europe and Asia.
The Eurasian blackcap usually known simply as the blackcap, is a common and widespread typical warbler. It has mainly olive-grey upperparts and pale grey underparts, and differences between the five subspecies are small. Both sexes have a neat coloured cap to the head, black in the male and reddish-brown in the female. The male's typical song is a rich musical warbling, often ending in a loud high-pitched crescendo, but a simpler song is given in some isolated areas, such as valleys in the Alps. The blackcap's closest relative is the garden warbler, which looks quite different but has a similar song.
Facilities provided at the Common include an outdoor swimming pool, bowling green, tennis courts and a skateboard arena. There is access from Icknield Way. [4]
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