Friends of Quantock own the land on the South side of the road from Over Stowey to Crowcombe almost from one cattle grid to the other. We hold it in trust on behalf of the public for their enjoyment, leisure and relaxation but we are also guardians of the land for the future and we need to protect it from damage and degradation.
We have been promoting for many years a scheme to provide improved parking for the public at Crowcombe Park Gate and while we still hope to see it realised as part of the lottery-funded Landscape Partnership Scheme it has been delayed several times. Meanwhile we have seen increased damage from cars on our land, some of it from joy-riding nocturnal off-roaders, some from horse boxes, from vans full of mountain bikes and from casual parking by visitors who know no better. There has been fly-tipping, the ridges of ancient plough marks have been damaged and our own surveys have shown that the wet acid grass and scrub is a rich and varied environment for rare plants and insects; not at all a place where you should be driving a car around.
So in order to indicate clearly that vehicles are not welcome and to make it difficult for them to stray from the road Friends of Quantock with the help of the Landscape Partnership Scheme are constructing a low ditch and bank in several places along the roadside. Work will take place during March 2022. The existing car parks remain in use and we wish the public happy times on their visits to the Quantock Common.