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Part of Martin Down was ploughed in WW2 it reverted back to down and is now species rich.
In 1962 new owners planned to “improve the down” six local farmers with common rights went to court, if they had not won Martin Down would not exist.
Part of Martin Down was ploughed in WW2 it reverted back to down and is now species rich.
In 1962 new owners planned to “improve the down” six local farmers with common rights went to court, if they had not won Martin Down would not exist.
The owners then decided to sell, Nature Conservancy Council & Hampshire county Council bought it, my friend Paul Toynton was the first warden.
Downland sheep tradition, Shepard stayed with sheep, they grazed where he walked them to, inearlier photo notice droving dogs not sheep dogs as we know
lead tame sheep with bells on as much followed sheperd as the dogs drove the flock, wool was important, meat less so
What mattered most is this the fold, hazel from Chase woods made into hurdles, sheep dung most at night, the sheperd would bring sheep from down to the strips of open field seen in map
Over night the sheep would dung the arable land ready to grow cereal crop. The legumes and down plants provided dung to grow cereals for millenia, horn & corn.
The clay vales were dairy, cow country =cheese
The chalk sheep
hence as different as chalk & cheese
The clay vales were dairy, cow country =cheese
The chalk sheep
hence as different as chalk & cheese
the to farming systems so different
I knew Dorset people still using sheepfold in 1960s, sat with them 20 years later as they told me about this ancient pattern, also knew Chase hurdle makers as old men.
It was a complex system, water meadows made in 1700s flooded river meadows
I knew Dorset people still using sheepfold in 1960s, sat with them 20 years later as they told me about this ancient pattern, also knew Chase hurdle makers as old men.
It was a complex system, water meadows made in 1700s flooded river meadows
with a sheet of moving water, managed by careful mound, channel, sluice creation, a drowners job. This chalk spring water is warmer than air. It caused grass to grow early in spring giving sheep a spring bite.
Wool was important, but most of all dung, and sheep feet treading it into arable. The fold was moved over the arable, dunging all of the open field.
Hurdle maker
Drowner
Water meadow, water flows from channel on top of ridge into lower channel and back to river, moving water warmer, and less favourable for water snails which cause liver fluke
images found on google images
The removal of nutrients by sheep being moved each night removed plant nutrient which with shallow soils on chalk is why the down is so species rich.
Downland is a complex habitat, Martin Down has areas of sand loess, sand deposited in Ice Age, and periglacial polygons. Chalk heath, acid plants like heather grows with chalk plants.
Scrub was firewood for commoner, gorse fuel for bread oven, also covet for hunters.
Scrub was firewood for commoner, gorse fuel for bread oven, also covet for hunters.
These estover rights were important, nightingale and other scrub birds would breed in the managed scrub. Dormice, which at Martin do not read books as we would find nests in young scrub in amongst grassland.
We should never give up on Downs they can be restored, can heal, in Napoleonic War the lower areas in places were ploughed. Martin Down has a big gas pipeline running through it, Terry Wells monitored the recovery and restoration for years, I met him there doing a survey.
You would not know today where pipeline is the flora recovered, ecologists can restore downs. Maybe Bottlebush Down to south will return again.
Obviously this short account only skims, the Wiltshire Horn of classic horn & corn was replaced as turnip and other root cultivation increased
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40274513?seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40274513?seq=1
