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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
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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
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Responsible Dog Walking
The South Downs National Park encourages responsible dog walking to help farmers and wildlife. Take the lead and keep those paws on the path! That’s the call to action to dogwalkers from the South Downs National Park Authority as ground-nesting bird and lambing season starts this March. With dog ownership at an all-time high post-pandemic,
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Your Opinion Matters
Friends of the South Downs was established 100 years ago by ordinary people taking action to protect our precious Downland landscape. Over the past 100 years, our charity’s growth and the achievement of National Park status has been down to the continued involvement of people who care. Now, as we make plans for the next
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Towpaths and Trails
From Canal to countryside, take a walk along the towpaths and trails of the Wey & Arun Canal – ‘London’s Lost Route to the Sea’ – and in woodland around Loxwood in West Sussex. As its name suggests, the Wey & Arun Junction Canal was created to link the two rivers, providing an inland waterway
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The Belloc Way
The Belloc Way is taking shape. The project is not yet finished, but there is an end in sight. We have now walked its full length for the first time. It was just under 100 miles and we did so over six days, averaging about 16.5 miles a day and walking Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday of the first
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South Downs Way Annual Walk
Archaeology tells us that the route along the South Downs Way (SDW) has been used by humans for thousands of years. It was favoured as a relatively safe way of traveling across West and East Sussex, avoiding the dangers of thick woodland and the large areas of lowland marshes that were then common across southern
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Be a Friend
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
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The Four Men
Hilaire Belloc was a prolific writer, who, over the course of fifty years, produced works of fiction, verse, political polemic, history, travelogue and religious tract. His book, The Path to Rome, is often cited as his most important work. But his renowned 1911 novel, The Four Men: A Farrago is a very different book. It
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Our Youngest Downlanders
“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