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ngland’s thirty-three Areas of Out - has left us some fascinating treasures, Exploring the Estanding Natural Beauty (AONB) including the beautiful Uffington have been described as the “jewels of the White Horse, the magical Wayland’s English landscape”, and the North Wes - Smithy and several Iron Age hill forts. North Wessex Downs sex Downs, the third largest of these The AONB then sweeps south, fol - AONBs, is no exception. lowing the River Thames to Pang - Designated in 1972, the North Wes - bourne before encircling Newbury Steve Davison is in chalk country as he celebrates sex Downs encompasses 668 square and part of the Kennet Valley, to the region’s history and heritage miles of rolling chalk landscape, encompass the northern reaches of the stretching from its western tip near North Hampshire Downs. The south - Calne in Wiltshire across a broad arc ern edge stretches westwards, passing to the south of Swindon, passing north of Andover to take in the Vale of through Oxfordshire and Berkshire, Pewsey, and the market towns of with a steep scarp slope looking out Hungerford and Marlborough. over the Vale of White Horse, to meet The predominant feature is the the River Thames on its eastern edge, underlying Cretaceous (99-65 million adjoining the Chilterns across the years ago) chalk geology; the North Goring Gap. Wessex Downs cover one of the most Along the crest of the downs, fol - continuous tracts of chalk downland lowed for much of the way by the in England. The chalk itself is formed Ridgeway — probably the oldest green from the remains of billions of minute road in England — prehistoric man sea creatures (known as coccoliths)

The rolling contours of the chalk downs overlooking the Vale of Pewsey. 10 the countryman june 2015 11

that over time have been compacted humans over several millennia, from and raised above sea-level by the grad - the impressive Neolithic henge at ual movement of landmasses drifting Avebury to the Kennet and Avon Canal, across the Earth’s surface. with picturesque towns and villages, A natural process of patchy and and mile after mile of footpaths. irregular hardening within the sandy In two further articles we will dis - beds that overlay the chalk produced cover more about the fascinating blocks of tough sandstone that are archaeology and the unusual white more resistant to erosion. These are horses of the North Wessex Downs, the famous sarsens, known locally as but here we’ll learn about its literary Grey Wethers (from a distance they associations, history and heritage. are said to resemble sheep — a wether Passionate about the beauty of the being a castrated ram). Sarsens were countryside and richness of nature used in the construction of the stone that he saw all around him, the Victo - circle at Avebury and the Neolithic rian writer Richard Jefferies became long barrows at West Kennet and Way - particularly noted for his depiction of land’s Smithy; a great number of English rural life. Born near Swindon, sarsens (around 25,000) can be seen in he knew the area well and in Wildlife their natural state at Fyfield Down in a Southern County (1879) he writes National Nature Reserve. about the ancient Ridgeway as being placidity, and in the vast playground The sparsely populated landscape “a broad green track runs for many a which they provide for the shadows of has been etched by the impact of long, long mile across the downs”. the clouds.” The First World War poet, Edward Another writer inspired by the Ridge - Above, Wilton Windmill, built in 1821; below, Alton Barnes White Horse on the Pewsey Thomas, who is commemorated in a way was Kenneth Grahame, author of Downs; facing page, colourful stained glass window designed by John Piper in memory stunning engraved-glass window by Wind in the Willows , who wrote: of John Betjeman, All Saint’s Church, Farnborough. Sir Laurence Whistler at the Church of “No villages nor homesteads tempt it St James the Greater in Eastbury, aside or modify its course for a yard … wrote a biography of Richard Jefferies Out on that almost trackless expanse of in 1909, and he captures the sense of billowy Downs such a track is in some remoteness and huge vastness of the sort humanly companionable: it really Berkshire Downs: seems to lead you by the hand.” “The Downs … are among the high - Thomas Hughes, who was born in est, most spacious, and most divinely the Vale of White Horse, wrote about carved in rolling ridge and hollow flank the area in his most famous book Tom … Jefferies often thought of the sea Brown’s Schooldays (1856); whilst G K upon these hills. The eye sometimes Chesterton was in awe of the ancient expects it. There is something oceanic galloping Uffington White Horse in his in their magnitude, their ease, their soli - poem Ballad of the White Horse; and tude above all, in their liquid forms, that the historical novelist Sir Walter Scott combine apparent mobility with referred to the legend of Wayland’s 12 the countryman june 2015 13

Above, Highclere Castle — home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon. Facing page, mystical Cornish Beam engines (the oldest flower, covering the meadow with a Silbury Hill — the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe. working steam engines in the world) mass of flowers. It’s known that the are still used on several occasions crocuses have been here for over 200 Smithy (a Neolithic long barrow) in his has been described as “the perfect throughout the year. Nearby at Wilton, years; however, some believe that they novel Kenilworth . doll’s house”. is the North Wessex Downs’ only were brought back here by the Knights Many who have watched the TV Standing high on Inkpen Hill is a working windmill. Templar during the Crusades. n series Downton Abbey will recognise grisly reminder of a bygone era: the Picturesque Aldworth is home to St Highclere Castle (ancestral home of haunting outline of Combe Gibbet, Mary’s Church and the Aldworth In the August issue, Steve delves into the the Earls of Carnarvon), a stunning clearly visible for miles around. The Giants — nine larger-than-life effigies ancient past with a look at the archaeol - early-Victorian mansion designed Sir gibbet (replaced on several occasions) of the influential de la Beche family, ogy of the North Wessex Downs. Charles Barry. Close to the River was built in 1676 to hang a local man which constitute the largest number of Thames is the beautiful late-eigh - and his mistress for the murder of his medieval memorials to a single family More information: North Wessex teenth-century Palladian mansion of wife and son. The story of the murders in a parish church. The churchyard is Downs AONB: 01488 685440; Basildon House that has starred in was used as the basis of the 1948 film the final resting place of the poet Lau - www.northwessexdowns.org.uk films such as Pride and Prejudice The Black Legend, produced by a rence Binyon, especially remembered (2005) and Dorian Gray (2009). His - group of Oxford undergraduates for the lines from his poem For the Further reading: toric Littlecote House is where Henry including John Schlesinger, who later Fallen that are quoted at Remem - The North Wessex VIII reputedly met Jane Seymour, who became a well-known film director. brance Day services. Downs , Steve became his third wife. While Ashdown Situated at the summit of the 200- The final location on our whistle- Davison (Hale House, built by William Craven, 1st year-old Kennet and Avon Canal is the stop tour is the Inkpen Crocus Field. Books); Walking on Earl of Craven, in the early 1660s as a world-famous Crofton Pumping Sta - Here, in spring, tens (even hundreds) the North Wessex hunting lodge and house fit for the tion. Although electric pumps have of thousands of purple spring cro - Downs , Steve queen he loved, Elizabeth of Bohemia, been installed, the original magnificent cuses ( Crocus vernus ) break into Davison (Cicerone).