Sompting Estate Noticeboard
Christmas 2011-12 News
Sompting Downs - Old and New
Walkers enjoying the Sompting Downs have seen big changes for the better, and will see more in 2012.
Upton Farm lies up Lambleys Lane (which goes up to some fields called lambs’ leys or pastures). It includes the downland which can be seen from the village, west and north of St Mary’s Sompting church. In the years up to 2000 it was still a mixed farm, with cattle and arable crops such as winter wheat, but only small numbers of sheep (Mrs Coleman’s prize Southdowns flock). With Lychpole Farm being then all-arable, the Estate turned the whole of Upton Farm over to grass. The incoming tenant farmers Philip and Claire Bower raise their own sheep and cattle, and also run a small horse livery at the old Stable Cross barns.
Over the last ten years we have learned which fields are good for restoring species-rich chalk grassland, and which fields would be better used in other ways. Natural England, the RSPB and other advisors have contributed to a new Farm Environment Plan in which a more balanced system will provide better habitat for ground-nesting farmland birds such as grey partridge, lapwing, and corn bunting. From 2012 Upton will be working to this Plan in the Higher Level Environmental Scheme. You will be able to see ploughing and arable crops on the hillsides again from the village, and there will be more birds to be seen from the footpaths.
Lychpole Farm is the most northerly part of Sompting Parish, all around the Beggars Bush car park and picnic area and down to the A27 by Mickey Mouse Town. Ten years ago, following decades of government intensification policies, Lychpole was just growing winter wheat.
Since then, Sompting Estate’s new tenant farmers Caroline and David Harriott have successfully reestablished a more traditional mixed farming system to raise and feed thousands of sheep and cattle. In this system, a variety of rotational arable crops such as spring barley, turnips, fodder beet and grass leys, are grown in a patchwork around some permanent grassland. The farming is more sustainable, the soil is healthier, and the landscape is altogether more hospitable as a wildlife habitat. We are also working on a project to clear some more scrub so as to favour the unique species-rich chalk grassland of the downs.
Future-proofing Ten years ago, Lychpole Farm’s traditional flint buildings were crumbling. The Estate has restored Lychpole’s historic farmhouse and (with help from Natural England) traditional barns. The building restoration works were done by a skilled young building company with a strong commitment to Sussex heritage, Nutshell Construction www.nutshellconstruction.com. Their work on the Estate continues with structural repairs at our oldest barn, Middle Yard Barn on Lambleys Lane. Subject to planning permission, they will be establishing their joinery workshop and office there – perfectly located in the very centre of the National Park. The working farm buildings and facilities also need to keep meeting the needs of the farm business: in 2011, planning permission was given to improve the roof cover on a livestock barn at Lychpole.
Another kind of future-proofing focuses on energy use: we are continuing to improve insulation in the farm houses, and have invested in some air source heat pumps. We support the National Park’s aim to be a ‘beacon of sustainability’, but the Sompting Estate has found renewables to be a rocky road. Our agents Strutt & Parker identified (only) one type of windmill that would be quiet enough to meet our standards, and we were going to order one – then the company that made it went broke. Next we spent time and money arranging for solar panel companies to do work in winter 2011/12 putting panels on some farm houses and a barn – then the government cut the Feed In Tariff early and these projects no longer seem to be viable… !
The National Park The living and working, yet also historic landscape of Sompting’s downland, is an asset we can all enjoy. The Sompting Estate hosts some courses in its Downs Barn Environment Education Centre, many of which are open to anyone – see the Courses & Events page. Our new National Park Ranger, Tom Parry, helps by organising groups of volunteers to carry out conservation management work over and above what the farms can do.
The Estate’s Managing Trustee Mike Tristram also works with the National Park Authority www.southdowns.gov.uk , as Chairman of the South Downs Land Management Group www.southdownsland.com , to help ensure good cooperation between the new Authority and the farmers and landowners who manage the landscape. The positive benefits of the creation of the National Park will come through spreading understanding of the farmed chalk landscape, and linking the community of those who are interested in it.
B. Other recent news items:
1. Historic dewpond restoration beside the ancient trackway just east of Cissbury
- The restoration by Sompting Estate's Lychpole Farm of this potentially very ancient dew pond, at the foot of Park Brow (Scheduled Ancient Monument), was completed in summmer 2010 with grant assistance from the Higher Level Scheme for Environmental Stewardship. Sheep flocks being driven to the Findon Sheep Fair stopped to drink here in times gone by; now it will again water the sheep in this field, and it is already well used for drinking by swallows, linnets, yellowhammers, foxes and many other wild creatures.
2. Downs Barn Environment Education Centre - Pond restoration
- Restoration of early nineteenth century pond completed October 2009
with grant assistance from the South Downs Society
- see Support page for more photos
- Latest courses - see Courses and Events page
3. Elm trees in upper Dankton Lane area
- Dutch Elm Disease affects elms on a cycle of about 15 years as they grow up, are infected, and die. Where possible trees infested with breeding grubs are felled in winter to keep the beetle population low so as to help protect the National Elm Collection in the Brighton area (Adur DC do their best but more National or Brighton funding is needed to support this activity). Most dead trees can best be left to stand for woodpeckers etc unless or until they start to fall and then they are felled to protect people, fencing and livestock, and used for firewood or the larger specimens for timber.
- This is currently happening in the upper Dankton Lane area. Hedgerows or shaws cleared of dead elms already contain many young elm tree suckers beginning the next cycle, and we have begun to plant other native tree species into some of the gaps.
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4. Learn to dance with the Somptiing Village Morris
If you would like to learn to dance with the Sompting Village Morris, look on their website for details.Sompting Village Morris