Our Downland nature reserves at Malling Down and Southerham Farm sit on the fringes of Lewes, with Malling Down dominating the easterly skyline of the town.
Both are exceptional examples of the rare chalk grassland habitat found across the South Downs. In serious decline, these endangered meadows are one of the country’s richest habitats floristically. Thin infertile soils sitting over chalk produce amazing flower-rich grassland. The thin soils and porous chalk, a rock made up of millions of sea creatures laid down in a vast shallow ocean over millions of years, provide this rich grassland.
Poor in nutrients and dry as a desert in the summer, plants have adapted to the harsh conditions. No one plant has the vigour to out compete its neighbour, with a huge range sitting cheek by jowl. Traditionally a square metre of turf can hold up to fifty different plants, with grass only making a small percentage of the mix. Alongside this plant diversity, one can find many butterflies and insects that rely on specific food plants and nectar from this wealth of flowering flora.
This landscape is the result of man’s influence over millennia. Grazing animals, mainly sheep, have been the prevalent farming practice across the South Downs since man first began farming in the south. This pastoral landscape evolved because of its thin soils, too shallow to successfully grow crops, scrub and tree cover were easily and quickly cleared and the grassland dominated.
Reliance on man to maintain this grassland has never gone away. Without intervention, this rare habitat would be lost. With the decline in grazing in the mid-20th century the South Downs lost 95% of its chalk grassland. Trees and scrub quickly began to recolonise, reducing this habitat to steep, inaccessible, rabbit-grazed slopes and lone farms which continued to graze with sheep. We continue this historical management using our own livestock to maintain the grassland and hundreds of volunteer man hours are spent restoring lost grassland by clearing scrub and trees.
Southerham Farm is the quintessential down land landscape, soft rolling slopes, following sinuous dry valleys. Many visitors enjoy the walk from Lewes to Glynde and through the year one can see and hear ravens, buzzards or if you’re lucky a peregrine falcon. In the spring and summer the nature reserve comes alive with flowering plants and insects.
The yellow horseshoe vetch (food plant of the Adonis blue butterfly) starts the summer off. The fluffy kidney vetch can be found next to the pale yellow mouse-ear hawkweeds, the white cotton wool flowers of dropwort and russet colours of salad burnet flowers. The blues of the field scabious and knapweeds intersperse the yellows and whites. Look for the rare day-flying moth scarce forester sitting on a grass stem. By late July the deep blue of the, round-headed rampion, known as the Pride of Sussex, covers the slopes. Near to the pathways on the southerly slopes one can look for the rare blue flowering chalk milkwort and the tiny bastard-toadflax plant with its rare shield bug Canthophorus impressus which is currently found nowhere else in Sussex.
Continuing through the site one can stop at the dew pond, a unique water feature of the South Downs (recently restored) to look for the aquatic wildlife in the clear water, which has naturally found its way back. Or maybe enjoy the downland birds using this valuable watering hole, birds such as linnet, meadow pipit or skylark.
Walking on Malling Down you can see a marked difference from its sister site Southerham Farm. Visitors can lose themselves in the ancient grass-covered mounds of the quarries or the deeply-cut dry valley of the grassland which provides shelter and a wide range of habitats for wildlife.
Orchids have been an important component of Malling Down with the common spotted and fragrant orchids frequently seen in the early summer on the sheltered slopes of the northerly quarries. You can try to find our rarer orchids such as musk and frog orchid barely two inches tall, remember to look before sitting down. Walking the Coombe in early summer you can see the bright yellow of horseshoe vetch covering the ‘snout’.
The ‘snout’ is a great place to look for the Adonis blue butterfly which has over the years bucked national trends at Malling Down by increasing in numbers. The vivid blue of this busy butterfly can be seen on the short turves of the southerly slopes together with the silver-spotted skipper. Both butterflies have benefited from conservation grazing along the South Downs.
The Coombe is also a great place to look for the yellow common rock-rose the food plant of the scarce cistus forester, an iridescent green
day-flying moth.
The flower rich chalk grassland of Southerham Farm will turn a deep blue, almost. Malling Down is easily reached on foot from Lewes town centre – head east and there is a small entrance in Wheatsheaf Gardens opposite the petrol station.
Southerham Farm nature reserve is located one mile east of Lewes. A footpath which runs between Lewes and Glynde crosses the reserve, and is a superb way to explore the whole area.
