Roman Snails in Essex
James Northfield 18 Weavers Row, Halstead, Essex C092JX
For those of us with naturalist leanings, a walk in the countryside is never dull. When
accompanied by my children we spend most of our time looking for interesting fauna,
mainly things which are either not scared off by the considerable noise we appear to
generate, or those unable to escape quickly enough. Snails probably fall into the latter
category.
On the 22nd of June we were on an evening walk along a sheltered track in the Halstead
area. The track sides had been quite overgrown with vegetation but had recently been
cut with a mechanical cutter. My daughter, Annabel, was walking along the track next to
the remains of the cut stems looking at the snails still attached to the stalks, admiring the
attractive yellow and brown striped shells of the Brown-lipped Snail Cepaea nemoralis
when she stopped bent down and called me over saying that she had found a "Roman
Snail".
This was an interesting statement, as the Roman Snail Helix pomatia is, as far as I knew
rather uncommon in the UK and secondly I am almost certain that my daughter had
never seen one before. The snail itself was a similar shape to the Garden snail Cornu
aspersum but with a lighter brown shell, and veiy much larger. We took a few photographs
and then spent 10 minutes briefly surveying the edge of the track finding a total of 17
individuals.
Returning home I sent an email with photo (see plate 1) attached to Peter Harvey and he
replied almost immediately, putting me in touch with Simon Taylor, the club's new
Mollusc Recorder, who confirmed that this was indeed the Roman snail H. pomatia and
that although a few colonies are known in Essex none was recorded for this particular
area.
Simon supplied further background information on the occurrence of this species saying,
"the snail is generally thought to be non native and to have been introduced by the
Romans, although some pre-Roman records are known, including some in Essex (possibly
relict interglacial colonies or previous introductions). Colonies of the snail are commonest
in southeast England where they tend to be primarily associated with chalkland, the
classic sites being chalk downland but also including scrub, dry woodland and hedgerows
where the soil is lime-rich and quite friable, as the snails like to burrow to see them
through the winter."
Additionally, Roman snails may receive unwanted attention as a potential delicacy and
there have been reports of snails being taken from the wild to be eaten, however, this
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 57, September 2008 11