Celebrating our Centenary this year, we have some exciting events planned as well as funding some projects that will make a real difference on the Downs. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our members for their continued support and invite all our new friends to join us today. Be a Friend of the South Downs.
As a member, you have access to over 200 walks and strolls a year. Your membership helps support our team of District Officers who monitor planning applications throughout the South Downs National Park. Your membership also helps support our extensive educational programmes with schools.
The Friends of the South Downs has agreed a major programme of spending totalling over £100,000 in our Centenary year, to benefit the Downs in the short term and the long term. The Friends can spend this money because they are fortunate to have recently received two substantial legacies. You can help us make these legacies go even farther by supporting us. Be a friend.
Bigger Items of Spending in the Plan
£60,000 to the National Park Authority for the refurbishment of the iconic 18th century pump barn building at the Seven Sisters country park, which will be used to showcase the Downs for visitors and provide space for activities.
£20,000 for projects to encourage children to learn about and appreciate the South Downs. We’re running the projects with bodies like the National Park Authority and Youth Hostels Association. We’re aiming at children for groups who are less likely to visit the Downs. The plan is to teach them about the landscape and history, and most of all encourage them to appreciate and value the Downs.
Be a Friend and Support our Projects
providing attractive wooden benches, converting stiles to gates to improve access and placing information boards at significant locations.
helping make a path more accessible for people with limited mobility, planned location Devils Dyke.
Contributing to the cost of staging a play based on Hilaire Belloc’s famous book The Four Men about a walk across the Downs.
Financing prizes at Brighton University for academic work relevant to the South Downs.
Upcoming Centenary Events
7 August – Pulborough Stroll of 8 miles including complimentary lunch at the Society Offices
10 August – An exclusive stroll around Lord Egremont’s private woods at Flexham Park
18 August – a Sunset stroll to the Devils Jumps
16 September – Amberley Guided Village Tour and Afternoon Tea.
25 September – A Talk by Alastair Appleton (from BBC Escape to the Country) exploring wellness and mental wellbeing amidst the beauty and tranquillity of the South Downs.
“It is rather wonderful that some of our youngest downlanders have been able to celebrate the Centenary of the Friends of the South Downs, by marking out ‘100’ on the greensward of the Downs. Bury School, nestling, as it does in the heart of the South Downs, has worked with FSD on two of our schools’ projects and are now taking part in our latest educational project called South Downs for All. Only last month, I accompanied some of the Year 5 and Year 6 children on an eight-mile walk over the downs from Slindon to Bury. A great school with a real commitment to sharing the joy of the South Downs with all their pupils.” Chris Hare, Project Manager
Our latest educational project, South Downs for All, is a programme aimed at bringing together eight South Down schools and the FSD to enable more children to enjoy the South Downs and learn about the heritage of this wonderful landscape. Chris Hare is also project manager of South Downs Generations, a unique partnership between FSD and four West Sussex Primary schools. That project brings together young and old to explore our common downland heritage.
Year 5 and 6 children at Bury School proved their downland credentials by walking from Slindon to Bury, a distance of some 12 km. The day was perfect – warm but not too warm.
We walked by Slindon Folly on Nore Hill, built for the Countess of Newburgh over 200 years ago, and trod the route Roman soldiers took 2,000 years ago along a surviving stretch of Roman road at Stane Street, that once led all the way from Chichester to London.
There were plenty of stops, including one at Bignor Hill, where the fingerpost points to destinations written in the original Latin.
Finally, we descended Bignor Hill and came across a bubbling stream, fed from a spring in the Downs. On returning to Bury School at just after 3:00pm, all the party – adults, as well as our youngest downlanders, were pleased to rest weary feet and limbs. But all agreed: it had been a great day.
An inspiring, new immersive walking experience that encourages visitors to discover new stories and reflections on Sussex’s iconic Heritage Coast has now officially launched. This summer, people walking along the beautiful chalk coastline from Seaford to Eastbourne will be able to tune in to 13 unique audio stories, each attached to a ‘listening point’ in the landscape, such as a bench, gate post or signpost.
We Hear You Now: the audio content includes stirring, emotive and sometimes surprising stories covering fiction, poetry and even new mythologies for this world-famous coastline. The talented wordsmiths have worked in collaboration with Alinah Azadeh, project lead and the first-ever Writer-in-Residence for Seven Sisters Country Park and Sussex Heritage Coast.
Alinah explained: “My intention is that our stories and poems act as a welcome, a creative spark – and a marker of radical hope in these precarious times.
“I wanted to make space both for my own work as resident writer and to amplify other creative voices missing from this pastoral coastal landscape; older women’s voices, Black voices, voices of colour, migrant voices, queer and non-binary voices, working class voices, disabled voices.
“Many of us have centred the most crucial voice of all; the voice of the land, and its challenge to us to reciprocate the care, protection, spaces for rest and joy it has always given us.
“Thank you to the close partnership and unswerving support of the South Downs National Park, and all the writers and spectrum of partners in making this new immersive walking experience possible.” The experience begins at the Seven Sisters Country Park Visitor Centre, near Seaford, and leads the visitor around the meanders and river of Cuckmere Valley. Then you are taken along the breathtaking chalk coast via Belle Tout Lighthouse and Beachy Head. Visitors can sit and hear the stories, or walk with them. The audio stories are accessed via any smartphone by simply scanning a QR code or tapping for an NFC code.
The writers are Alinah Azadeh, Georgina Aboud, Jenny Arach, Razia Aziz, Joyoti Grech Cato, Oluwafemi Hughes, Dulani Kulasinghe, Georgina Parke and Akila Richards. Access the video here:
Anooshka Rawden, Cultural Heritage Lead for the South Downs National Park, said: “Exploring the landscape with ecologists, archaeologists and environmental campaigners, British-Iranian writer and artist Alinah Azadeh, has used her passion for the South Downs to provide a nurturing hand to fellow creatives who have been invited to voice their relationship with the Seven Sisters and the Sussex Coast.
“In We Hear You Now, writers of global heritage bring stories of survival, recovery and reverence for land as a living, breathing entity to create new mythologies for this iconic landscape. I hope anyone who listens to this new immersive walking experience feels closer to the land under their feet, and to the people and cultures who have been part, and continue to be part of its future.”
The trail launches to the public on 24 June 2023. Print guides with a map and information can be collected from Seven Sisters Country Park Visitor Centre, Exceat, near Seaford, East Sussex, BN25 4AD and across partner sites, or downloaded online from 24 June 2023. All content is freely available.
Our latest Walks and Strolls programme for the third quarter is now live. We offer over 200 walks and strolls over the year of varied distances for most fitness levels. Centenary celebrations continue this quarter with themed strolls in various locations.
The first one takes place in August and begins in West Chiltington, after which participants will enjoy lunch provided at the Society’s Pulborough office. The second Centenary stroll takes place near Petworth and our patron, Lord Egremont, has granted exclusive access to the private wood at Flexham Park. The third Centenary stroll will actually be two separate strolls on the same evening, aiming to meet up at Devil’s Jumps near Cocking to enjoy the sunset.
One of our trustees, David Green, has designed a linear walk called the ‘Belloc Way’. The route draws inspiration from Hilaire Belloc’s renowned 1911 novel, The Four Men: A Farrago. The novel recounts the journey of four men who embark on a 90-mile pilgrimage across Sussex, starting from Robertsbridge in the east and concluding at South Harting in the west. Along their path, they encounter various points of interest and engage in sharing stories, songs, jokes, and reflections on life, history, and culture.
The ‘Belloc Way’ walk will take place over six days during the first two weeks of August. While four committed regular walkers have pledged to complete the entire route, we warmly welcome other participants to join them for individual legs of the journey. This will provide an opportunity to learn more about Belloc’s remarkable life and his significant contributions to the literary world.
As well as our Walks and Strolls programme, we also offer a selection of self-guided walks which you can enjoy on your own or with friends. For each walk we provide a download including a map, description and images to help you find your way.
Most readers will instantly recognise these lines from the poem Sussex by Rudyard Kipling. Few poems capture the spirit and the beauty of the Downs which he had come to love at the turn of the 20th Century. It was written in the summer of 1902, just a couple of months before he and his family moved from Rottingdean, where they had been living for the past five years, to Bateman’s near the East Sussex village of Burwash, where they would live out the rest of their lives. They had moved to Rottingdean in 1897 at a time when he was one of the most popular and admired writers in the country, having captured the public’s imagination with his tales and poems of India which had earned him the soubriquet ‘The Laureate of the Empire’.
Overall, the Kiplings’ stay in Rottingdean appears to have been a happy period in their lives, although clouded by the death of their eldest child, Josephine, who had died of pneumonia at the age of just six years old whilst they were on a visit to America in 1899. Looking back at their time in the village, writing in his autobiography Something of Myself, Kipling recalled, ‘I do not remember any violent alarms and excursions other than packing farm-carts filled with mixed babies […] and despatching them into the safe clean heart of the motherly Downs for jam-smeared picnics, […] Those were exceedingly good days, and one’s work came easily and fully.’
However, the Downs that Kipling eulogised in his poem were in a state of crisis. From the 1870s onwards, Britain had experienced a prolonged agricultural depression, brought about by cheap imports of wheat, meat and wool from abroad. Land prices had plummeted and by the beginning of the 20th Century much of the downland lay derelict. However, where many saw crisis others would see opportunities. In 1915, a property developer called Charles Neville bought up land on top of the cliffs west of Newhaven, and after the war, divided the area up into plots of land for people to build their own houses on. With virtually no planning restrictions, the new ‘town’, which was given the name ‘Peacehaven’, was described as ‘a rash of bungalows, houses, shops, shacks, chicken runs, huts and dog kennels’.
The despoilation of the Downs at Peacehaven was, of course, the spur that led to the foundation of the Society of Sussex Downsmen (as it was then known) in 1923. Its first chairman was the journalist and newspaper proprietor, Arthur Beckett. At the Society’s inaugural meeting in January 1924, Beckett proposed that, ‘Mr Rudyard Kipling be asked to be President, or failing that, Patron of the Society.’ Kipling was a notoriously private person, and nothing appears to have come from Beckett’s proposal.
However, whilst he may have shunned the idea of an honorary post in the Society, Kipling obviously felt deeply about saving the Downs from development. In 1926, the Crowlink Estate, which comprised 480 acres of land along the top of the Seven Sisters cliffs between Seaford and Eastbourne, was bought by a building syndicate for £9,750. In an effort to prevent development taking place, the Society approached the syndicate to buy the land to protect it. The syndicate offered to sell the land for £16,450 so a national appeal was launched to raise the money. As part of the appeal, a leaflet, entitled, ‘The Beauty of England must mean something to you!’ was printed to publicise the campaign. The leaflet describes the beauty of the Downs and states: It might have been this very beauty that inspired Mr. Rudyard Kipling when he wrote the fourth stanza of his Sussex:
Clean of officious fence or hedge,
Half-wild and wholly tame,
The wise turf cloaks the white cliff-edge
As when the Romans came.
What sign of those that fought and died
At shift of sword and sword?
The barrow and the camp abide,
The sunlight and the sward.
It is just this ‘wise turf’ and this ‘white cliff edge’ of Crowlink that have been threatened with defacement in our commercial age.
These lines could only have been printed with Kipling’s permission, and by allowing his lines to be quoted he would have added much weight to the appeal. The appeal caught the public’s imagination and the necessary funds were swiftly raised whereupon the Seven Sisters ultimately passed into the guardianship of the National Trust. In addition to Kipling lending his name to the appeal, Arthur Beckett writing in an article for The Sussex County Magazine shortly after Kipling’s death in 1936, tells us, ‘When I asked him if he would subscribe to the purchase fund initiated by the Society of Sussex Downsmen to save the Crowlink Valley […] he sent a cheque for a substantial sum.’ Kipling’s involvement in the appeal clearly demonstrates his concern over development that was taking place in an area of countryside that he had come to love.
Although the Seven Sisters had been saved, insensitive development would take place on the cliff tops to the east of Rottingdean. In his autobiography, whilst remembering the happy times at Rottingdean, Kipling regretfully observed, ‘Today, from Rottingdean to Newhaven is almost fully developed suburbs, of great horror.’
It is evident that Kipling loved the Downs and was happy to do what he could to protect them, whilst his evocative poem Sussex would go on to inspire others to go out and do the same. His role in the campaign to save the Seven Sisters undoubtedly contributed towards the success of the appeal and in many ways, he was in the vanguard of what today we would call the conservation movement.
Richard Howell
Richard Howell is a Council member of the Kipling Society. He lives in Sussex, and has recently completed an M.A. thesis on the history of the Bateman’s Estate.
An exciting initiative has been launched for schoolchildren to explore the nature, history and culture of the South Downs. Schools across West Sussex are being invited to take part in ‘Explorers of the South Downs’, which offers a range of fun activities for young people to connect with the natural world and learn about the National Park.
Children will enjoy an outdoor adventure and learn new skills, such as building a shelter, bushcraft, tree identification, bug hunting, mindfulness activities, environmental art, team building and photography – all focused on the landscape, culture and history of the South Downs.
The Explorers of the South Downs project is a partnership between So Sussex, a Sussex-based outdoor education organisation, the South Downs National Park Authority, and Friends of the South Downs, whose generous donation has made the project possible. The aim is to support schools with a significant number of disadvantaged pupils and/or SEND places (Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).
Emma Bruce, Youth and Community Engagement Officer for the National Park, said: “It’s really exciting to be launching this brand new initiative to help connect young people with nature.
“We recently surveyed over 200 schools in the area and all of them believed outdoor learning was good for mental and physical health, while more than three quarters said it raised attainment in children. With Children’s Mental Health Week coming up in February, we couldn’t be announcing this initiative at a better time.
“The National Park is an education resource we want schools to use and enjoy. There are so many opportunities to learn in the great outdoors and that’s what this scheme is all about – giving young people that connection with the environment that will hopefully last a lifetime.”
Andrew Lovett, a trustee of Friends of the South Downs, said: “We are delighted to be able to fund this excellent project. Helping children to understand and love the Downs is one of our top priorities. 2023 is our centenary year and this project is a great way to celebrate.”
Caroline Fleming, who helps to run the Schools Without Walls programme for So Sussex, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for children and young people to discover and explore the South Downs, to connect to nature and learn about their own local environment.
“At a time when schools are facing increasing financial challenges and school trips are becoming increasingly expensive, this funding for Explorers of the South Downs offers much-needed support and opportunities to ensure equal opportunities for pupils to experience what the National Park has to offer.”
The scheme will run until September and has a range of options, including working with a single class or a year group, as well as activity days and trips in the National Park. Funding is also available to pay for transport if needed. The initiative is open to primary and secondary schools. Any schools interested should contact Caroline at schoolswithoutwalls@sosussex.co.uk or visit www.schoolswithoutwalls.co.uk for more information.
Benches for the South Downs, here at Saddlescombe with Chris Steibelt
Over the last year, our benches projectwas 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!
We applaud our District Officer, James Brown, who was out collecting redundant tree guards around the King Edward VII Estate in Easebourne last month. In ten hours, he collected over 500 tree guards. They’ve been stacked and await removal for recycling.
Now the work begins.
We all know that tree planting forms a key part of our goal to reach net zero carbon emissions in the next three decades. But based on current performance, discarded and redundant tree guards will be a common sight in our countryside since the UK Government has set ambitious targets for planting as many as 3000 hectares of woodland per annum. The good news is, technology has advanced and not all plastic tree guards are fossil fuel based. Today, many products made with UV stabilised polypropylene are generally recyclable.
“We want to see a complete end to the use of single-use plastics in the supply of tree guards (much of which will inevitably become highly polluting micro-plastics),” says the joint response, “as well as the introduction of more effective controls and auditing in order to require a greater focus on recovering old tree guards and preventing further pollution.”
But the problem remains: who will take responsibility for the removal of the overwhelming amount of tree guards still left littering the forest floor? Those who planted the trees? Landowners? Will volunteer groups be the only willing souls out collecting redundant tree guards? The removal is not without high costs. Companies will not simply take the plastic for recycling. There are fees involved.
We will continue our campaign to create more awareness on this issue and explore the options, not to stop the use of tree guards, but to:
• Increase public awareness both within the South Downs National Park and nationally
• Call for greater accountability for removal of redundant tree guards – you put them in, you take them out!
• Lobby tree planting organisations to use alternative methods
• Work with the South Downs National Park Authority to introduce regulations within the Park covering the use of tree guards
• Encourage greater use of bio compostable tree guards
• Organize collection days around the South Downs National Park to remove redundant tree guards
Against the distant background of the South Downs, a small church stands alone among fields and woodland. It is a modest building from the late 11th or early 12th century with extensive 19th-century alterations including the addition of a porch. This is St Peter’s Church in the West Sussex village of Terwick and here you’ll find The Lupin Field.
There has never been a village of Terwick as the soil near the church is poor. In 1646 there were only five houses in the parish but they may have been substantial households. Today, it is a lovely place to visit in late May or early June, depending on the weather, to see the lupin field at its best.
This field full of lupins separates St Peter’s from the A272 and is now in National Trust ownership. Until after World War II the field formed part of the rector’s glebe. The Reverend George Laycock planted the lupins which self-seeded and bloomed year after year. He was Rector of Terwick for over 40 years until his death in 1933 (he is buried in the churchyard). He lived nearby in the large rectory and as he was not burdened with many parish duties, he spent much of his time using the field behind the church as a market garden.
The lupin field was later owned by Mr and Mrs Hodge of nearby Fyning House. She adored the view of the lupin flowers in the field framed by the South Downs. The surrounding land is arable and Mrs Hodge wanted to ensure that the view was protected and the lupins would always be there. On the Hodges’ death in 1939, the field was gifted to the National Trust with the condition that they would continue to grow lupins in part of the field. Through the decades the National Trust has worked with the Rogate community and the local farmer to try and ensure new seed is planted and the number of lupins maintained.
Today, the lupin field still holds hundreds of lupin plants, but within this is a mix of wild grasses and flowers such as ox-eye daisies, poppies, vetch and meadow cranesbill, which have self-seeded and become part of the meadow. Harvest mice also live here and the space is now a ‘naturalised’ meadow which gives space and opportunities for wildlife to flourish amongst a more formal and farmed landscape. The NT manage the field in a similar way to a hay meadow. A cut is taken late in the year once the lupins have seeded and the grass is baled and removed. Russell mix lupin seeds are sown into the bare ground in spring. The lupins are commemorated in an altar frontal given to St Peter’s to celebrate the millennium.
A272 ROGATE to MIDHURST ROAD National Grid Reference: SU 81784 23512. Signpost to St Peter’s Terwick and parking behind the church.
Walks from here turning east back along the road from the church and then crossing the A272 can take you north to Borden where you connect to the Serpent Trail.
On Saturday 21 May 2022, our Trustee Chris Steibelt was out in Singleton Forest with volunteers and Forestry England representatives for our first tree guard cleanup day, collecting redundant tree guards to be sent off for recycling.
Tree planting forms a key part of our goal to reach net zero carbon emissions in the next three decades. We all love trees! Most planted saplings need some form of protection from rodents and deer in order to survive until they are well established. The common solution is to use a tree guard. These need to be durable and translucent for at least five years and the most cost-effective solution to date is those made of plastic. The good news is, technology has advanced and not all that plastic is fossil fuel based. Today, many products made with UV stabilised polypropylene which is generally recyclable. Regardless, redundant tree guards remain a problem. National Park campaigners, like the Friends of the Yorkshire Dales, have called for a ban on plastic tree guards. And whether the tree guards are recyclable or not, the fact is they are forgotten for decades, choking the trees they are meant to protect or littering the forest floor.
“I’m pleased to report that our recent tree guard cleanup day, collecting ageing plastic tree guards in Singleton Forest, was a success thanks to help of our team of 10 volunteers supported by Forestry England,” Chris said. “Over 750 were gathered up, some 20 years or more after their original placement. It was sad to see that in a number of cases, the plastic tree guards had actually strangled the tree resulting in its premature death. After removing the non-recyclable plastic zip ties, they were stowed into jumbo bags ready for collection and recycling.
“It is reassuring to hear from Forestry England that of the seven million trees they plant each year only 2% are protected with this type of tree guard and what’s more they are now doing trials of biocompostable guards. In addition, they have taken steps to improve their record keeping of exactly where and when plastic tree guards have been used.”
That sounds relatively encouraging for the future but what about all the mess created in the past? Should it be it left for volunteer groups to tidy up or should we press for more accountability on the part of our forestry managers? What do you think?
“We continuously seek out environmentally friendly alternatives, but due to the lack of a credible, biodegradable alternative, we’ve used tree guards made from UV stabilised Polypropylene to protect the young tees from browsing by deer and rabbits and ensure the best chance of reaching maturity.
“Forestry England’s policy is for all tree shelters to be collected and removed from sites at the end of their useful life – about 10 -15 years after planting. We’re now able to keep track of areas where tree guards have been used, so that once they’ve served their purpose, we can send them to be recycled.
“Forestry England plants seven million trees each year across the nation’s forests and of these only around 2% need to have tree guards to protect them from damage. This amounts to approximately 150,000 tree guards per year. We are continuing with trials of sustainable alternatives to plastic tree guards and as soon as products become commercially available which are high enough quality and durable, we will be ready to switch over and use them for all new tree planting.
“We are already making positive changes and nearby at Queen Elizabeth Country Park and Forest we have used biodegradable alternatives for our tree planting this year and hope to scale this up nationally in autumn and winter of 2022/23.”
