Kingley Vale
Kingley Vale is a narrow, wooded valley in Sussex, cut into the southern slopes of the South Downs north of Chichester. It is four miles from the sea and five miles east of the Hampshire border.
Around the vale is a large area of grass downland and shrubland with a number of old yew trees. From the top there are views over Sussex and the south coast. A number of walks and bridleways are provided around the nature reserve, of which he main walk winds around the woodland and yew trees and up to the top of the hills.
Conservation
Within and around the valley, 505 acres are designated a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.[1] It is also a Special Area of Conservation[2] and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I.[3] Further, an area of 365 acres are a national nature reserve.[4]
The site is managed by Natural England. It has an information centre and a nature trail.[5]
Natural features
Kingley Vale has one of Britain's most impressive yew forests. The forest contains yews as much as 2,000 years old, which are some of the oldest living organisms in Great Britain.[6] Their survival is remarkable because most ancient yew trees across Europe were felled after the 14th century, being the preferred material for the staves of longbows.
In 1472, with the increasing popularity of the longbow, the English government enacted a "yew tax" of four "bowestaffs" for every cask of wine unloaded at an English harbour.[7] This sparked a rush for ancient yew trees across Europe, decimating the forests.[7] Kingley Vale is one of the few major stands remaining; most yews elsewhere are solitary trees or small stands.[7]
Other tree species in Kingley Vale include oak, ash, holly and hawthorn. The chalk grassland is home to many flowers and herbs that form a diverse mosaic of species. Over 50 species of birds are found, although only six species breed in the yew woodland. Mammals include deer, yellow-necked mouse, water shrew and dormouse. The 39 species of butterfly at Kingley Vale are mainly found in the grassland.[8]
Heritage sites
Kingley Vale has a rich and diverse heritage with remains of a Romano-Celtic temple at Bow Hill.[9] Iron Age settlement site known as Goosehill Camp,[10] the Devil's Humps Bronze Age round barrows and prehistoric flint mines. There are also a number of unidentified archaeological remains in the form of linear earthworks, a rectangular enclosure known as Bow Hill Camp and evidence of settlement at the base of the hill.[11]
Location
- Location map: 50°53’38"N, -0°49’59"W
- Streetmap: SU822112
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kingley Vale) |
- Kingley Vale National Nature Reserve
- Yews at Kingley Vale
- Richard Williamson, The Great Yew Forest. The Natural History of Kingley Vale, London, Macmillan, 1978. ISBN 0-333-22739-5
References
- ↑ SSSI listing and designation for Kingley Vale
- ↑ "Designated Sites View: Kingley Vale". Natural England. https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteGeneralDetail.aspx?SiteCode=UK0012767&SiteName=&countyCode=46&responsiblePerson=&unitId=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea=.
- ↑ Ratcliffe, Derek, ed (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 118. ISBN 0521-21403-3.
- ↑ "Designated Sites View: Kingley Vale". Natural England. https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteGeneralDetail.aspx?SiteCode=1006085&SiteName=Kingley%20Vale&countyCode=&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea=.
- ↑ Natural England
- ↑ "Kingley Vale". English Nature. 2003. http://www.english-nature.org.uk/about/teams/team_photo/KingleyVale.pdf.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Jim Robbins (2012). The Man Who Planted Trees: Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet. Spiegel & Grau.
- ↑ Kingley Vale. Ashford, Nature Conservancy Council South East Region, 1978.
- ↑ Down, Alec (1979). "Gazeteer of Sites and Finds". Chichester Excavations (Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd.) 4: 36–7. ISBN 0-85033-344-X.
- ↑ Boyden, J. R. (1956). "Excavations at Goosehill Camp, 1953-5". Sussex Archaeological Collections 94: 70–99. doi:10.5284/1085886.
- ↑ Heritage Gateway. "A multiple enclosure fort known as Goosehill Camp and a prehistoric linear boundary on Bow Hill". Historic England. https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=1008375&resourceID=5.