Last March we started work around the Viewpoint, clearing the scrub along the top of the steep slope to both encourage the restoration of the rare chalk grassland and also to open up the view out over the Sussex Weald.
Below: The view following the clearance of scrub along the top of the slope.
In the south-east chalk makes up the North and South Downs, 2 long ridges that are all that remains of what was once a vast dome of chalk.
Chalk grassland is exceptionally rich in plants (including many orchids – bee, man, fly, common spotted, pyramidal and fragrant) - and insects, many of which have evolved to take advantage of the wide variety of specialist plants. The nutrient-poor soil makes it difficult for any single plant species to dominate, making for a very diverse habitat – one of the richest in Western Europe. Up to 50 different plant species, including many that are found exclusively on chalk grassland, can be found in a square metre. The species-rich grassland also supports invertebrates and wildlife that are either mostly or completely confined to chalk. Chalk grassland also contains rare species of liverworts, mosses and lichens.
Another advantage of chalk is its ability to naturally filter water that subsequently requires minimal treatment, making it cheaper for the water companies to extract and supply.
This visit we concentrated on removing the dense scrub and young trees beside the stretch of the North Downs Way that leads away from the Viewpoint. This will encourage the grassland and wildflowers to spread, as well as start to open up more of the views through the trees and enhance the path by making this section less confined. It is encouraging to see the violets, primroses, wild strawberries, ground ivy and bugle that now abound on a section we have previously cleared. If we can encourage these to spread it will add to the enjoyment of the area for walkers, cyclist and horse riders that pass this way.
When we first visited the site in Apr 2013 the entire woodland, apart from a small conifer plantation, was choked with laurel. Thick and twisting everywhere, much of it was virtually impenetrable and nothing was able to grow beneath the dense canopy that left the woodland in darkness for the entire year. Even the woodland path was permanently gloomy and uninviting - not helped by its reputation as having once been used for carrying coffins from the village to the nearby church – as the laurel formed a dense wall all along the very edge along both sides and reached up across it to prevent any light from getting through. Even on a sunny day the Land Rover had to drive along it with its lights on. It was only as we started to cut our way in that we realised there were many mature trees hidden from view.
Now, after 5 years hard work, we reached the closing stages of the clearance programme. The standard trees have been uncovered and the light can once again flood in through the open canopy for the first time in many years. It is amazing to see how the floor, once totally devoid of any plantlife, is home to a mass of seedlings and there are even signs of bluebells reappearing.
And just as important, it is now a tranquil woodland for people to enjoy. It is noticeable how the number of people walking through has increased with each year we have been there, helped in no small part by the fact that the woodland path is now open and inviting. There is even a resident forest school, where hopefully the children can now fully appreciate the open, spacious woodland environment. Had they been there from the beginning it is extremely doubtful they would have stayed as the dense tangle of laurel, the gloom and developing monoculture would have made exploration close to impossible. The only thing to be learnt was what can happen to woodland when it is left unmanaged, especially if it has at one time been planted with highly invasive species, such as laurel or rhododendron.
Below: The woodland path, no longer enclosed, gloomy and uninviting.
One of the impressive sights is the re-emergence of a mass of bluebells in the area of Rydons Wood, Coulsdon Common we have been restoring over the past couple of winters. When we started the restoration the woodland had been largely neglected since the extensive damage caused by the Great Storm of '87 (when in a single night, an estimated 15 million trees were lost in south-east England). As a result it was overgrown and the impenetrable vegetation, as with The Grove at Chipstead (above), left the woodland floor in permanent darkness, with the result that no flowers were able to grow. The hazel coppice was overstood and in a very poor state, and the floor was littered with the rotting remains of storm-blown trees. Now, the floor is covered with bluebells, most noticeable where the ground is just bare earth from years of being in complete darkness. Nature’s ability to spring into life at the merest opportunity never ceases to amaze and hearten.