South Downs

This English Heritage project aims to provide information about the historic environment within the proposed South  Downs National Park. The process by which the area will be designated a National Park is being guided by the Countryside Agency. It is hoped that English Heritage can contribute in a number of ways, by combining resources drawn from various different teams: Landscape Investigation Team, the Aerial Survey Team and the Centre for Archaeology. Our assessment of the overall picture is complete and we have now begun more detailed fieldwork on several specific sites which we have identified as requiring further work.

 The nature of the landscape within the proposed South Downs National Park is diverse. The South Downs themselves are rolling chalk hills, now largely given over to arable agriculture, punctuated by steep-sided valleys where sheep pasture still survives. They are noted for their prehistoric remains, with several Neolithic flint mines and 'causewayed enclosures', as well as large numbers of Bronze Age burial mounds and a fair few Iron Age hillforts. Many of these sites have already seen intensive archaeological research in the past and our role here is primarily to offer an overview. To the north of the Downs, the lower-lying wooded landscape of the Weald offers a marked ecological and cultural contrast.   

For further information contact David McOmish in English Heritage's Cambridge Office on 01223 582700, or david.mcomish@english-heritage.org.uk