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Roughdown Common is a biological
It is one of the few examples of unimproved calcareous grassland in Hertfordshire. The dominant grasses are 
The entrance points to the mine were sealed to human access in 1994, and the site instead became a bat hibernaculum, and is the home of a small colony of Brown long-eared bats.
The site is always open and there is access from footpaths starting at the junction of Roughdown Road and Roughdown Avenue. An explanatory panel, placed by the Box Moor Trust, stands by the quarry entrance near the Roughdown Avenue railway bridge.
Starting in September 2017, the Box Moor Trust, working in conjunction with Natural England will begin felling self-seeded trees and clearing scrub at the site in order to encourage the reestablishment of calcareous species originally found there.
In October 2019, Juniper picked on Roughdown Common was used by
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
. The planning authority is Dacorum Borough Council. The site is Common land, and it is owned by the Box Moor Trust having been officially bought by the trust in April 1886 from the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's. It is part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Common is a steeply sloping chalk hill in south Hemel Hempstead.
History
It was formerly the site of a large chalk quarry featuring apillar and stall
Room and pillar or pillar and stall is a variant of breast stoping. It is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane, creating horizontal arrays of rooms and pillars. To do this, "rooms" of ore are dug out w ...
mine, an entrance to which still exists, however, it is sealed off for human entry.
During the construction of the Grand Union Canal where it flows through Boxmoor, the navvies who carried out the work lived on an encampment at Roughdown Common. The navvies where not the only group that made use of the Common; in 1809 a Good Friday funfair was held in the chalk pit, while 1939 saw the first recorded football match on the site, played by young evacuees from London. The war theme continued in 1946 when prisoners of war - who were based in a P.O.W. camp at nearby Howes Retreat - cleared scrub at the site.
Present day
It is one of the few examples of unimproved calcareous grassland in Hertfordshire. The dominant grasses are meadow fescue
''Festuca pratensis'', the meadow fescue, is a perennial species of grass, which is often used as an ornamental grass in gardens, and is also an important forage crop.
It grows in meadows, roadsides, old pastures, and riversides on moist, rich ...
and meadow oat-grass, and other flora includes colonies of orchids, including Common Spotted, Fly
Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...
and Pyramid varieties, as well as common juniper. Roughdown Common is the only known site in Hertfordshire in which Juniper regenerates naturally.
The grassland habitat is maintained by sheep grazing. In September, 2016 the first recorded sighting of the Jersey Mocha moth in the county occurred on the Common.
The entrance points to the mine were sealed to human access in 1994, and the site instead became a bat hibernaculum, and is the home of a small colony of Brown long-eared bats.
The site is always open and there is access from footpaths starting at the junction of Roughdown Road and Roughdown Avenue. An explanatory panel, placed by the Box Moor Trust, stands by the quarry entrance near the Roughdown Avenue railway bridge.
Starting in September 2017, the Box Moor Trust, working in conjunction with Natural England will begin felling self-seeded trees and clearing scrub at the site in order to encourage the reestablishment of calcareous species originally found there.
In October 2019, Juniper picked on Roughdown Common was used by Puddingstone Distillery Puddingstone may refer to:
*Puddingstone (rock), a type of sedimentary rock
*Puddingstone Park, a park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Lake Puddingstone, a lake in Los Angeles County, California
*Puddingstone Rock, a small islet in New Zealand's Otago H ...
to create a gin
Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink that derives its flavour from juniper berries (''Juniperus communis'').
Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe, particularly in southern Italy, Flanders and the Ne ...
. The distillery had teamed up with the Box Moor Trust and released the beverage in order to celebrate the Trust's 425th Anniversary. It was the first gin to be made in Hertfordshire using natural Juniper.
See also
* List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Hertfordshire * Box Moor TrustReferences
{{coord, 51.7402, -0.4850 , type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Hertfordshire Hemel Hempstead Common land in England