Tag: cycling

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Stepping Out Smart by Avoiding Ticks

As the weather warms up, many of us look forward to spending more time walking and hiking on trails and in parks. However, a tiny menace awaits—Ixodes Ricinus, the blacklegged tick. Also known as the Deer Tick, these crafty parasites cling to vegetation waiting to latch onto passing animals or people, looking for a meal of blood. While going unnoticed, they can transmit Lyme disease, an illness you’ll want to avoid. Let’s look into stepping out smart by avoiding ticks. Protect yourself with some tick smarts before heading out on your next walk.

stepping out smart by avoiding ticks

Ticks and Lyme Disease

Blacklegged ticks in their nymph stage are most likely to pass on Lyme. These poppy seed-sized insects are efficient transmitters of the corkscrew-shaped Lyme bacterium. Infected ticks secrete the bacteria into the skin when they insert their feeding tube.

What Are the Symptoms?

If a tick infected with the Lyme bacterium has fed on you, a rash might emerge on your skin around the bite within three to 30 days. The infamous ‘bullseye’ circular rash, called erythema migrans, appears in about 70-80% of infected people. Flu-like symptoms like fever, headache, stiff neck, swollen lymph nodes, and fatigue often accompany the rash.

Without treatment, more severe joint swelling and pain, heart palpitations, and neurological issues involving numbness, paralysis, and memory problems can occur. See a doctor right away if you experience any of these warning signs of Lyme after spending time outdoors. Prescription antibiotics at an early stage can treat the infection effectively.

When walkers return from wooded areas or fields with tall grass, they must perform thorough tick checks over every inch of exposed skin. Look carefully in warm folds around armpits, the groin, back of knees, scalp, and ears. Tiny young ticks are easy to miss.

Stepping Out Smart by Avoiding Ticks

The best defence to avoid close encounters with these disease-carrying freeloaders is to minimise exposure of unprotected skin by wearing trousers and long-sleeved shirts. Stick to trails and avoid sitting on logs or in tall grass. Apply a DEET repellent on exposed areas of skin. After returning from a walk in an infested area, immediately put clothes in the tumble dryer on high heat to kill stragglers. Check your body closely and document any tick finds. Prompt removal within 24 hours using pointy tweezers can stop disease transmission. If you remove a tick that has bitten you it can also be a good idea to bag in and put it in the freezer for later examination by the NHS if Lyme symptoms appear.

Ticks may be small, but the illnesses they can transmit pack a serious punch. With vigilance, preventative measures, and quick tick removal, walkers can continue to roam the landscapes they enjoy—without unwelcome fellow travellers tagging along.

Ian Lancaster, Walks & Strolls Coordinator

Follow this link to learn about tick removal

Follow this link to the NHS Lyme Disease information page

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Our Centenary Year

Our Centenary year in 2023 provides a great opportunity to celebrate the South Downs and the role of the Friends of the South Downs, and to publicise what we do. To mark our Centenary year we are planning significant events and activities to celebrate the beginnings of the Society.

Seven Sisters from Cuckmere Haven Friends of the South Downs

It’s difficult to imagine a world in which people could build without restriction on a landscape of outstanding beauty, yet that is the threat that our predecessors faced almost 100 years ago.

After witnessing the construction of Peacehaven on the chalk cliffs to the west of the Ouse, our founder members feared what would happen to the rest of the eastern Downs in that time without effective planning controls.  To counter that threat they joined together in 1923 to form ‘a society for the preservation of the Downs’, which soon became the Society of Sussex Downsmen.  We later changed the name to the South Downs Society and are now known as the Friends of the South Downs.

Peacehaven our centenary year friends of the south downs

‘One spring day in 1923 on the chalk cliffs overlooking the Channel, two men, brothers-in-law, walking east from Brighton, were dismayed to come upon the new settlement of Peacehaven, developed on what was once downland. There was only rudimentary town planning in the 1920s and Peacehaven had been sold in plots, with no control over the dwellings to be built on them. It was no more than a shanty town.

‘Their day doubtless spoilt, Robert Thurston Hopkins and Captain Irvine Bately returned to their homes in Brighton resolved to try to prevent any further loss of the precious landscape of the Sussex Downs. Thurston Hopkins made contact with Gordon Volk. A committee was formed comprising Robert Thurston Hopkins, his wife Sybil, Captain Irvine Bately, his wife Lilian, and Gordon Volk. Volk then approached Arthur Beckett, a prominent newspaper owner. Beckett agreed to become President of the new society. Late in 1923, a crowded public meeting in the Royal Pavilion enthusiastically resolved to form a society for the preservation of the Downs.‘ Excerpt from Richard Reed’s A Centenary History of the Friends of the South Downs.

The threats to the Downs may have changed over the last 100 years but we still remain vigilant to protect the natural beauty of the area. To mark our Centenary year we are planning these significant events and activities.

South Downs for All:  a two-year lottery-funded project to encourage children to know and love the Downs. We’re working with two secondary and six primary schools to take children on field trips on the Downs.  The schools chosen have higher than average less well-off and ethnic minority children: groups which are less likely to visit the great outdoors.

A fascinating new book on the history of the Friends. Written by Richard Reed, who has been a member for a remarkable 75 years, the book traces our history from the struggles of the 1920s when there were few planning controls to the challenges of today.  The book is available to all members and available to purchase on our website.

Stimulating talks by prominent personalities. We have arranged tremendous online talks in 2023 by

  • Hilary Benn, the Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds Central who, in 2009, signed the order confirming the designation of the South Downs National Park. Register here!
  • Alistair Appleton, television broadcaster (Escape to the Country), psychotherapist and meditation teacher at Mindsprings in East Sussex
  • Isabella Tree, award-winning author of Wilding who, with her husband Charlie Burrell, run the rewilding project at Knepp Estate in West Sussex

Recreation of Hilaire Belloc’s Four Men walk We will walk in the summer of 2023 perhaps one of the first long-distance trails, Hilaire Belloc’s route from Robertsbridge to South Harting. We’re also thinking as well of ways to make the walk better known.

Making a length of footpath more accessible We plan to improve a selected footpath to make it accessible for wheelchair users. We’re still working out the details of the best site to choose and will keep you updated.

A cycling festival Cycling, particularly with electric bikes, can help people access suitable routes on the Downs. We are working with selected bike shops this summer to run events near the South Downs Way to demonstrate and try the latest regular and electric bikes.

Centenary appeal Would you like to help these exciting events and projects happen?  Please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!

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Sourcing Wood for our Benches

Benches for the South Downs, here at Saddlescombe with Chris Steibelt

Over the last year, our benches project was severely held up. Due to the Pandemic, there has been a huge rise in timber costs. Sourcing wood for our benches was a major challenge. Our supplier was not able to source locally grown oak at an affordable price.  After many phone calls to various contacts, I discovered the wonderful Northway Brothers who have a woodyard near Milland.

Doug and Erwin Northway are locals. They went to school in Midhurst and, having worked originally with a chestnut fencing contractor, they decided to set up their own business.  They are not easy people to find as they don’t have a website, don’t do social media and don’t advertise! Their business comes entirely from recommendations. Mine was from the Head Forrester at the Leconfield Estate in Petworth, home of our Patron Lord Egremont, where the brothers get their Forest Stewardship Council approved oak.

Doug and Erwin built their own sawmill machine when they set up the business and it is very impressive. They work in all weathers in an open shed, so it’s a pretty tough job but they seem very content with it.  

I arranged to go along and see the wood being cut for our project. Here are some photos of the process of sourcing wood for our benches. I learned a lot through meeting them and watching them work.

What’s next? We have other locations along the South Downs Way in the South Downs National Park lined up and we’ve been given the green light to go ahead and make the next benches.

Have you visited any of our benches? They are now installed at Saddlescombe, Harting Down and Ditchling Beacon. We’d love to see your photos. Visit us here on Facebook and on Instagram and on Twitter and don’t forget to tag us!

Caroline Douglas, Trustee

sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
Sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
sourcing wood for our benches friends of the south downs
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Easebourne/Langham Circular Walk

This Easebourne/Langham circular walk is an easy walk starting either in Easebourne or at Langham Brewery and takes you through open fields with views of the South Downs and patches of woodland with a small amount of road walking on the end by the brewery.

Easebourne/Langham Circular Walk

You can start the Easebourne/Langham circular walk by parking at Langham’s Brewery carpark and walk clockwise or anticlockwise around the whole route (5.7miles) or make it into a figure-of-eight. If this is too far for you, just do the first half of the figure-of-eight (2.5 miles). If you do the whole route and would like to make the walk a little longer, the delightful Easebourne Street is lovely to wander down beside the little culvert which is the River Ez. You will be treated to a very unspoiled selection of the old houses and gardens of Easebourne village.  

Alternatively, if you start from Easebourne Street, where there is parking on-street (left hand side of the map), you can use the brewery as a half-way rest point. Warning! After a beer and Langham’s delicious pizza, the second half of the route seems longer!

Primroses in the River Ez

Langham Brewery offers a delicious range of fresh keg beer, cask conditioned real ale, bottles and cans – lovingly brewed at their award-winning microbrewery in West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park, near Petworth. The brewery is the perfect destination experience; walkers, cyclists, hikers and day-trippers are all warmly welcomed.

The Brewery’s Taproom and Shop are open 6 days a week, and this month the Taproom turns a year old. Please save the date for the celebrations: Saturday 16th April, from 5pm – 9.30pm. Expect live music, a hog roast (delicious veggie options also available) and a well-stocked, award-winning bar. This is a free-to-enjoy event, but please bring loose changes (and notes!) as there will be a collection for the https://davidnottfoundation.com

As well as an extensive range of beers, the team also serve soft drinks, delicious cakes, local, authentic Italian pizzas, and more. Try 4 Langham brews in a single purchase via their ‘flights’ – the brewery’s flight attendant (formerly BA!) is happy to guide you through your tasting experience. The Taproom is also available for private hire.

For loved ones who enjoy craft ale, a gift voucher makes an ideal gift – available for Brewery Tours, beer and merchandise, as well as the new ‘Be A Brewer For The Day’ voucher.

Easebourne/Langham Circular Walk leads to Langham’s taproom!
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Cycling in the Downs

Have you ever thought of doing sections of the South Downs Way on your bicycle?

For anyone not so keen on the uphill sections there are electric bikes available for hire in a number of towns located close to the South Downs Way. Midhurst is the recommended start point for this 20 mile roundtrip. E-Bike Adventures e-bike hire service and All Ride Now e-bike shop in Midhurst can help there.

From the hire shop, it’s just a short distance until you reach the turning for Bepton and you are then on a quiet country road running alongside Midhurst Common and out into open countryside. The route passes through Cocking and then up to the South Downs Way via Crypt Lane. Look out for the Time Column in Cocking and (disused) railway tunnel which hopefully will one day become part of the Centurion Way.

After crossing the A286, it’s a slow steady climb up the South Downs Way, but there’s plenty of reason to stop to admire the view to the West and North. You now have 5 miles of South Downs Way to enjoy. There’s dense woodland on your right and grazing pasture, ancient tumulus and plenty of places designated as SSI opposite. You reach a height of 234M at the intersection with the path to East Dean to the south and Duncton to the North. The views to the North East and West even on a dull day are fantastic. A short detour from here to Tegleaze Crown will take you to the highest point on the South Downs in Sussex at 255M. It’s downhill from here to Duncton via the quarry and A285. Check your brakes before you freewheel down and make a stop at the overview point at Fryan’s Hanger.

At the bottom of Duncton Hill after the 2 sharp lefthanders, turn left into Beechwood Lane. In ¾ mi, you’ll find a small gate on the right leading into Seaford College. Turn left and pass through the school grounds and along the track with Lavington Stud Farm on your right and pass the gatehouse. A right turn will lead you to St Giles Church, Graffham and on down the hill into the old part of the village.

Follow signs for Heyshott/Midhurst until you reach Heyshott Common. Follow the sign marked Footpath to Dunsford (the former home of Richard Cobden). Pass Canine Partners and along the path to Dunsford and up the road to Pendean. You arrive at Oaklands Lane where you turn right passing over the disused railway to Pulborough until you come to Church Road on the left. It’s a short sharp rise but you’ll sense refreshments are (hopefully) just a few minutes away so it’s little bother. From Church Road turn left onto Selham Road and it’s a few hundred yards down to Chichester Road and South Pond in Midhurst. For your well-earned coffee and cake the time will come again to try Gartons in the Market Square. The time will also come again when there are plenty of pubs for something stronger.

Chris Steibelt, Trustee

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De-Carbonising Transport

On 26th March 2020 the Department for Transport (DfT) published its Decarbonising Transport Report, outlining priorities that it hopes will put the UK on a path towards a net-zero transport system and consequently improve air quality. It says that an important aspect of reducing emissions from transport will be to use our cars less and be able to rely on a ‘convenient, cost-effective and coherent’ public transport network. Whilst the report suggests we should be driving less often, much of the document focuses on the shift towards electric vehicles (EVs). In introducing the report, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said

“Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.”

Many organisations have picked up on the report welcoming it enthusiastically including SUSTRANS, Living Streets,  CyclingUK and Campaign for Better Transport They all say they are looking forward to working with the Government to decarbonise transport.
Click here for the Creating the Transport Decarbonisation Plan to go to the Government’s announcement. If you want to read the plan without downloading it, CLICK HERE.

Other Government news on the development of sustainable transport:

Feb 2020:      Government to pledge £5bn for bus services and cycling routes Further details are promised a new National Bus Strategy to be published later this year. There are also promises to create 250 miles of new cycle and plans to make cycling safer in towns See also: Government to invest £1 billion each year to improve bus services 

Feb 16th 2020: All 3,000 bus routes axed because of government spending cuts will be restored and passengers could soon be “calling one up on your app”, the transport secretary has claimed

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‘Missing Link’ Project reaches its first milestone!

Earlier on in March this year the missing link’ team made up of members of the Friends of the South Downs and SCATE (South Coast Alliance for Transport and the Environment) reached its first milestone in the survey of missing links across the National Park. The team led by Policy Officer Vic Ient, including Society members Robert Self and Mered Harries together with CTC Cycling club members, met with South Downs National Park officers to hand over survey information of numerous missing link locations. Vic Ient said, “I’m particularly grateful to Society member Mered Harries for his work in documenting all the suggestions we have had over the winter months”.

The next stage is for the National Park to analyse the data and produce a digital map so that it can be used as a reference document in the future when applications are made for funding by local groups including parishes, clubs and societies as well as by the highways authority who are responsible for roadworks.  Speaking on behalf of the Society and SCATE, Policy Officer Vic Ient said “In the mean time we will continue with the surveys especially in Hampshire and Northwest Sussex where we need more feedback from local parishes and organisations. The intention is that we meet with the National Park when they’ve completed their digital mapping and hopefully help them prioritise and classify the missing links”.

At the meeting with the National Park the Society also raised other issues which have come out of the surveys. The Society hopes to have further discussions about designating and promoting ‘quiet lanes‘ (see also the CPRE guide) where the priority in the lane is one of being ‘shared’ between vehicles, horses, cycles and walkers. We have also raised the importance of the creation of long-distance multi-user pathways which could be particularly beneficial to separating cyclists and walkers away from hazardous busy roads. This theme was taken up by David Sawyer, the Chairman of our Society at a recent meeting with the National Park. He cited the importance of progressing ‘The Rother Way’ in West Sussex. (see also the SUSTRANS guide)

Since the project began in the autumn of 2019 the Society have engaged with individuals and organisations across the Park by email, local meetings and a workshop (held in January). Organisations including the Mid Sussex Bridleways Access Group ( British Horse Society) , Cycle Lewes , Cycle Seahaven, Friends of Lewes, Cycling UK (Hampshire), Sustrans West Sussex, Transport Action Network, Adur and Worthing Cycling, Friends of the Earth and Lewes Living Streets as well as cycle shops such as Bespoke Cycling Eastbourne and Mr Cycles.

The ‘Missing Link’ Project is aimed at drawing up a list of suitable roads where improvements are needed to make cycling/walking/mobility safer, The objective is to connect up sections of roads to create a fully functional cycle network which will also provide safe routes for walkers and in some cases make provision for mobility users and horse-riders throughout the National Park. These are for both recreational and utility use and if improved would help the National Park encourage ‘modal shift’ and reduce carbon emissions. Once locations have been assessed and mapped it is hoped that campaigning organisations, parish, district and county councils can use the data to help apply for grants to complete some of these missing links. Obviously, the Highways Authorities (County Councils) would have to approve any improvements. However, we are hoping that with the South Downs National Park backing that the ultimate list of identified locations will gain support more easily than multiple ‘ad hoc’ proposals being put forward. Vic Ient, Policy Officer said “Once the National Park has digested our report, we will send out a message as to how people can help with the next stage”.

Previous update on the ‘Missing Link’ project:

30th Oct 2019: https://friendsofthesouthdowns.org.uk/help-us-complete-that-missing-link/

16th Jan 2020: https://friendsofthesouthdowns.org.uk/missing-links/

27th Jan 2020: https://friendsofthesouthdowns.org.uk/missing-link-project-gains-momentum/

 

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Missing Links

The Missing Link – creating an accessible road network in the South Downs National Park

We are pleased to report that the initial survey by SCATE and the Friends of the South Downs (South Downs Society) which kicked off at the end of August last year is now nearing completion. We have had a very good response.  A map has been made up and a schedule of comments/suggestions has been tabulated see links below. A workshop is being held in Lewes East Sussex on 25th January 10:30 to 12:30 to review the many inputs from that area. Click here to register for the workshop. Likewise a workshop is planned for Hampshire. Once these are complete we will present our initial findings to the National Park.

Despite completing this first phase more surveys and documentation is need on later responses we have had. Can you help? If so please contact us at enquiries@southdownssociety.org.uk

Current survey documents:

Click here for Missing Link Survey Sept to Dec 2019

Our thanks to Friends of the South Downs Society volunteer Mered Harries for his work in documenting the responses.

Maps (these are only photo extracts so quality may be limited :

East Sussex (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Sussex (click to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

for background notes read on………..

 

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Help us complete that Missing Link!

We need your input – creating a more accessible road network in the National Park

Help us complete that Missing Link!  Do you know of a missing road link that is deterring you from walking or cycling in the National Park? If you do read on……….

The Friends of the South Downs (South Downs Society), along with organisations such as CPRE Sussex, Transport Action Network and the Sussex Wildlife Trust support an alliance which aims to persuade local councils, the National Park and the Government to develop safe and sustainable transport as well as better land use in planning. This organisation is titled: SCATE (South Coast Alliance for Transport and the Environment).  

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Greater renewable energy focus needed in development for 226 homes at Old Malling Farm Lewes

Re: SDNP/18/06103/OUT, Old Malling Farm, Old Malling Way, Lewes, BN7 2DY: Outline approval for residential development comprising up to 226 dwellings with associated landscaping and parking, with access from Monks Way (All Matters Reserved except Access and Layout).

The Society objects to the development in its present form. We believe that the current plan should be referred back to the developer so that the road layout and access arrangements can be reviewed along with the submission of a revised sustainability assessment. Accordingly, the application should be deferred so that improvements to the application can be made.

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