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A truly special place So precious Digging down Simply wild From remote, rolling downland An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is a precious Scratch the surface in the North Wessex Downs and you find The North Wessex Downs offer wildlife a diverse range of special If you love all that is best in the to charming market towns British countryside, you cannot fail to landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are what really makes it tick – chalk. The area lies at the heart of the habitats. Not least amongst them is the chalk grassland on thin, and picture postcard villages, appreciate this often unheralded patch recognised as so outstanding that it should be protected for the chalk band that stretches across southern England and was once well-drained soils that are low in nutrients. Traditionally grazed the North Wessex Downs are straddling four counties. It is an area nation. The North Wessex Downs make up the third largest of under a warm sea. The geology is based on tiny creatures that by sheep and rabbits, the characteristically springy turf is a rich truly special. Undoubtedly united by one single factor – chalk. The Britain’s 46 AONBs, covering an area of 668 square miles (1,730 lived in the sea around 65 million years ago and are the source of habitat that is teeming with farmland birds, chalk-loving flowers geology gives this area its wide open among Britain’s most downland topped by rampant white square kilometres) and taking in 173 parishes including the market today’s soft rock. and rare butterflies. Wild flowers that thrive include the nectar- beautiful landscapes, they are horses, dramatic scarp slopes, majestic towns of Hungerford and Marlborough. rich scabious, early gentian, birdsfoot trefoil, pyramidal orchid ancient woodland and sheltered valleys somewhere to be treasured, The fact that rain runs so readily The North Wessex Downs have a rich and hairy violets. They in turn attract insects and you could well with sparkling rivers and streams. protected and enjoyed. through the chalk creates dry heritage – nowhere more so than at be lucky enough to see rare butterflies like the Adonis blue and But amidst the peace there is endless living, working valleys with streams and seasonal the world heritage site of Avebury. silver spotted skipper. fascination because the North Wessex “landscapes winterbournes that carry crystal-clear Built and altered over many centuries Downs are also packed with wildlife, As the celebrated poet Edward Thomas filtered water from hillside springs at a from around 2600 BC to 2200 BC, its history, romance and bustling business. wrote: “This is pure downland, the constant temperature. Chalk streams three great stone circles enclosed by

© Andrew Perrott Listen out for “ breasted hills curved as if under the are internationally rare habitats a massive bank and ditch made it one Take a closer influence of a great melody. It is that support some of the UK’s most of the principal ceremonial sites of “ the ‘peewit’ call beautiful, a quiet, and unrenowned threatened and fragile plants and Neolithic Britain. Nearby is Silbury Hill, Listen out for the ‘peewit’ call of the look. You won’t and a most visibly ancient landscape.” animals. the motive for which remains one of lapwing or the distinctive chirruping of of the lapwing AONBs are not, however, just about the great unsolved mysteries. There the skylark. The rare stone curlew with be disappointed. The geology is responsible not just for being beautiful. They are living, working are some 20 Neolithic barrows nearby. its long yellow legs and round yellow or the distinctive the rolling and sometimes dramatic landscapes much loved by residents and Other historic sites include Iron Age eyes is a summer visitor. The North contours of the landscape but for chirruping of the visitors alike. enclosures and hillforts at Ladle and Wessex Downs Farmland Bird Initiative sweeps of chalk grassland that haven’t Beacon Hills in north Hampshire and at helps local farmers to protect a range of skylark Conserving and enhancing the natural been disturbed in centuries. Along

© Stan Green Barbury Castle in Wiltshire. rare birds. beauty of the North Wessex Downs the northern edge of the area runs is the responsibility of nine local one of Britain’s most ancient roads, There are ancient heathlands at “ authorities in Berkshire, Hampshire, the Ridgeway, the ancient chalk route Bucklebury and Inkpen, veteran trees Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. They come used by prehistoric man. The exposed at Ashampstead and Savernake, and together with community, farming, downland with its lack of water bluebells in profusion at West Woods conservation, tourism and heritage encouraged the local population to near Marlborough. The Pewsey Downs representatives to make up the settle in the few river valleys where they National Nature Reserve is one of the

Pewsey to Devizes. to Pewsey