Lottery cash for nature reserve

THE Sussex Wildlife Trust has received a massive 212,500 Lottery grant to double the size of its Malling Down nature reserve at Lewes and restore its chalk grassland.

The present 91.5 acre reserve is a site of special scientific interest and of international nature conservation importance.

An opportunity has arisen to purchase a further 92 acres, doubling the size of the reserve, at a cost of 148,600.

Much of the proposed purchase is the summit and slopes of the hill which dominates the view eastward from Lewes High Street - an area of great beauty and archaeological heritage, with an ancient Celtic field system.

A SWT spokesman said: If the Trust does not buy the land, it will almost certainly be sold and ploughed for arable again, and the public access and landscape restoration opportunities will be lost.

To restore the traditional wildlife and landscape of the area it will need to be grazed. The Trust proposes to acquire its own stock and part-time grazing officer to achieve this.

The new area will also require extensive re-fencing and scrub clearance as well as a new water supply. Restoration works will cost about 141,200 over five years.

Reunited with the existing nature reserve, the whole will be more than the sum of the parts in every way.

The nature conservation heritage could be restored and expanded, and made more financially sustainable. The whole recreational area with its key archaeological features will be safeguarded by Trust ownership.

The Downs landscape east of Lewes would then never again suffer from ploughing and intensive agricultural use.

The total purchase plus restoration costs will be about 289,800 over five years. The Trust has been allocated 212,500 from HLF to realise this once-in-a-generation opportunity, and is seeking matching funding from English Nature, The Countryside Agency and Lewes District and Town Councils.

Viridor s Beddingham Landfill site has promised 30,000 towards the matched funding and the Trust would appreciate the financial support of local people.

The importance of the existing reserve is particularly for its orchids (nine species recorded) and 34 species of butterflies which include a flourishing Adonis Blue colony.

The reserve comprises three main parts. The Coombe is a deep, steep sided Y-shaped divided valley that points at Lewes High Street, and Lewes Castle. It includes two large south facing chalk slopes and so is the best area for butterflies, many of which need the warmth of short hot summer turf.

As an over-deepened dry valley it is thought to have been carved by meltwater streams running over the frozen chalk during the last Ice Age. The valley floor has been used for

allotments since World War Two. Between the arms of the Y is the Snout , the top of which is one of the best vantage points from which to view the site of the Battle of Lewes between Simon de Montfort and Henry III in 1264. The Pits occupy the upper scarp slope to the north; the site of intermittent extensive chalk workings from the mid 1600s until the 1950s.

It was also used as a receiving range, and later as a munitions disposals site in the war.

Finally there is a connecting field with a dew pond on top of the hill which links the two main areas.

The setaside fields include an Iron Age field system. The banks and ditches are visible as crop marks in the grass, both from other parts of the existing reserve and from Lewes

town.