Storrington’s new Stork Mural Needs Our Fundraising Support
A major new street artwork is coming, and you can be a part of it! This exciting project now has the go-ahead with full planning permission. We seek to raise £3,500 over the next two months to cover the costs of a stork mural and interpretation board at Place Villerest. An ambitious target, but with
Connecting children with the Hampshire Downs of National Park
An exciting initiative to connect schoolchildren with the wonders of the Hampshire Downs returns for 2026. Last year more than 600 children benefitted from school trips and learning opportunities in the National Park, thanks to a generous grant from Friends of the South Downs. The project, called Explorers of the South Downs, is now back
Boxing Season on the South Downs
Walks Leader and Trustee David Taylor recently led an early morning walk on the South Downs looking for Brown Hares. The Norfolk Estate above Storrington and Amberley is a hotspot for hare activity and the day did not disappoint. Being crepuscular, hares are most busy around dawn and dusk, particularly during their peak breeding season
Walking the Petworth Way
We hear from Ian, walks leader, on his reflections on recently completing the Petworth Way LDW with several other FSD members this March. “The Walks Programme occasionally ventures beyond its familiar circular format for something more ambitious: a multi-day linear walk from one point to another. These take a bit more organising (shuttling cars, booking
Support Friends of the Dales’ Petition to Stop the Criminal Killing of Birds of Prey
Despite more than 70 years of full legal protection, raptor persecution remains a serious and persistent wildlife crime. The Yorkshire Dales is one of the UK’s worst-affected areas, with 152 confirmed incidents of persecution or suspicious disappearances recorded between 2009 and 2023. To tackle these wildlife crimes effectively, long standing Yorkshire Dales charity Friends of
Clean Water Now: Environmental groups launch major new campaign ahead of Water Reform Bill
New report urges Government to stop pollution at source, fix the broken water system, and restore nature to England’s rivers, lakes and seas in next generation water reforms A major coalition of environmental organisations have launched Clean Water Now, a new report setting out the urgent reforms needed in the upcoming Water Reform Bill. Currently,
Coalition calls for Protected Landscapes to benefit from visitor levy
Campaign for National Parks has joined forces with protected landscapes bodies, leading environmental charities and conservation societies to call on Government to ensure any visitor levy properly supports National Parks and National Landscapes. The Government announced plans in November 2025 to bring forward an overnight accommodation levy for Mayoral Authorities, and a consultation on the
Where Cattle Calmly Graze
How we are supporting Sussex Wildlife Trust with essential conservation at Ebernoe Wildlands Nature Reserve. Ebernoe Wildlands Nature Reserve features one of the richest woodlands for wildlife in the South East. It is a matrix of dense woodland, sunny rides, open glades, and scrubby edges. Barbastelle and Bechstein’s bats, the rarest bats in Europe, make
Truleigh Hill
Trustee David Taylor recently led a guided walk around Truleigh Hill near Shoreham. During a coffee break, David spoke about RAF Truleigh Hill’s role as a radar site during WW2 and the early years of the Cold War. Sitting at over 700 feet above sea level, Truleigh Hill became operational in July 1940, right at
River Health in the South Downs National Park
I hope you will have seen that the Campaign for National Parks (CNP) of which the Friends is, of course, a member has just published a Report, ‘Rivers at Risk’, on the state of rivers in the National Parks. Its findings make sobering reading, but sadly will not come as a surprise to anyone. You
News Updates
General news from the Friends of the South Downs
