Downland, chalkland, chalk downs, or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, largely turfed with grass, such as the Chiltern Hills and North Downs.
Downland, chalkland, chalk downs, or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, largely turfed with grass, such as the Chiltern Hills and North Downs.
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering 300 square miles (780 km). It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but stretches into Hampshire.
The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known landmarks. Large areas are given over to military training; thus, the sparsely populated plain is the biggest remaining area of calcareous grassland in northwest Europe. Additionally, the plain has arable land, and a few small areas of beech trees and coniferous woodland. Its highest point is Easton Hill.
A greenway is usually a shared-use path along a strip of undeveloped land, in an urban or rural area, set aside for recreational use or environmental protection. Greenways are frequently created out of disused railways, canal towpaths, utility company rights of way, or derelict industrial land. Greenways can also be linear parks, and can serve as wildlife corridors. The path's surface may be paved and often serves multiple users: walkers, runners, bicyclists, skaters and hikers. A characteristic of greenways, as defined by the European Greenways Association, is "ease of passage": that is that they have "either low or zero gradient", so that they can be used by all "types of users, including mobility impaired people".
In Southern England, the term also refers to ancient trackways or green lanes, especially those found on chalk downlands, like the Ridgeway.
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about 260 sq mi (670 km) across the south-eastern coastal counties of England. This area of downland extends from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate of East Sussex, in the east. The Downs are bounded on the northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose crest there are extensive views northwards across the Weald. The South Downs National Park forms a much larger area than the chalk range of the South Downs, and includes large parts of the Weald. The national park is the UK's most visited, attracting an estimated 39 million visitor-days annually.
The South Downs are characterised by rolling chalk downland with close-cropped turf and dry valleys, and are recognised as one of the most important chalk landscapes in England. The range is one of the four main areas of chalk downland in southern England.
Calcareous grassland (or alkaline grassland) is an ecosystem associated with thin basic soil, such as that on chalk and limestone downland.
There are large areas of calcareous grassland in northwestern Europe, particularly areas of southern England, such as Salisbury Plain and the North and South Downs.
The Eastbourne Downland Estate is an area of downland at the easternmost end of the South Downs National Park in East Sussex, England. It was bought by the public, following threats to the beauty spots of Beachy Head and the surrounding farmland, which led to a public campaign and Act of Parliament in 1926. It is currently owned and managed, on behalf of the public, by Eastbourne Borough Council.
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills and an area of downland in south-east England, that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs. The North Downs Way National Trail runs along the North Downs from Farnham to Dover.
The highest point in the North Downs is Botley Hill, Surrey (270 metres (890 ft) above sea level). The County Top of Kent is Betsom's Hill (251 m (823 ft) above sea level), which is less than 1 km from Westerham Heights, Bromley, the highest point in Greater London at an elevation of 245 m (804 ft).
A lynchet or linchet is an earth terrace found on the side of a hill. Lynchets are a feature of ancient field systems of the British Isles. They are commonly found in vertical rows and more commonly referred to as "strip lynchets". Lynchets appear predominantly in Southern Britain and many are in areas close to Iron Age forts and other earthworks, including later Roman earthworks and earlier barrows from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. The size, location, spacing and number of rows of many strip lynchets indicates that many were man-made. It is most likely that lynchets were dug to maximise the use of land for agriculture, although they may have had other, ceremonial uses.
The word is the diminutive form of lynch, now rarely appearing in the English language, indicating an agricultural terrace; it is cognate with the golf links. However, both "lynchet" and "lynch" may also be used to refer to a strip of green land left between two pieces of ploughed land on non-sloping ground; or to a natural slope or terrace along the face of a chalk down.
Blandford Camp is a military base comprising some 390 hectares of downland lying 2 miles (3 km) north-east of Blandford Forum in the county of Dorset in southern England.
Significant areas of the camp are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
St. Catherine's Down is a chalk down on the Isle of Wight, located near St Catherine's Point, the southernmost point on the island. The Down rises to 240 metres at its highest point, between the towns of Niton and Chale. Upon the hill is St. Catherine's Oratory (known locally as "the pepperpot"), which is a stone lighthouse built in the 14th century by Walter De Godeton. It is the second oldest, and only surviving, medieval lighthouse in the British Islands: only the Roman lighthouse at Dover is older.
Reportedly, de Godeton was found guilty for having plundered wine that belonged to the Church from the shipwreck of the St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay. He was ordered to make amends, under threat of excommunication, by building and maintaining the lighthouse. It was completed after his death, and staffed by a priest; fires were lit in the tower to warn ships of the coast. There was originally a chapel attached, which has since been demolished. A Bronze Age barrow near the Oratory was excavated in the 1920s.