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. It’s difficult to imagine a world
Explorers of the South Downs
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
Silviculture
Woodland is an integral part of our lives. It provides fuel, food for farm stock and materials from which we build shelters, fences and tools. This may have started as random harvesting of material but silviculture, the management of trees, soon developed into various forms of woodland management. In the UK, woodland has been defined
Sourcing Wood for our Benches
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
Tree Guard Cleanup Day
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
Clever Local Herds
Out on a walk with my dog Ruby recently around the Mardens, at the west end of the South Downs, we stumbled across a shoot. Whilst their target was pheasant, the sound of gunshot ringing around the densely wooded hillside clearly had an unnerving effect on the other inhabitants of this otherwise tranquil area. As
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. You can start the Easebourne/Langham circular walk by parking at
Ban Plastic Tree Guards
National Park campaigners call for a ban on plastic tree guards as Government considers banning other types of single-use plastic Campaign for National Parks, Friends of the Dales, Friends of the South Downs and nine other National Park Societies have joined forces to call for a ban on plastic tree guards. Chris Steibelt, Trustee of Friends of the South Downs, is
New Heritage Website
Within weeks of our ‘South Downs Schools Living History Project’ starting in January 2020, we were hit by Covid and the first lockdown. Given that the focus of this project was for primary age children to interview the older people in their communities, this could have been a fatal blow, but through ingenuity and modern
