Thundersley Great Common or Thundersley Common is an biological

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 ...

Thundersley Thundersley is a town in the Castle Point borough of southeast Essex, England. It sits on a clay ridge shared with Basildon and Hadleigh, east of Charing Cross, London. In 2011 it had a population of 24,800. The ecclesiastical parish of Thu ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. It is managed as public open space by

Castle Point Borough Council A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

. The site is in two separate areas, and has a variety of grass and heath habitats. There wet and dry heathland, both unusual in Essex, and have locally uncommon plants. Heather and

gorse ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...

are dominant in areas which are not mown, and ponds which dry up in the summer provide an additional habitat. There is access from Common Approach and Kingsley Lane.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.575, 0.592, type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Essex