Kingley Vale: a walk

Walking with Richard Williamson: Country Walk - Kingley Vale

Although I have written the Kingley Vale walk five times before in my weekly column I know there are still many Sussex people who have never been there. It is about 10 miles south of Midhurst.

Is it the best walk in the county? That may or may not be your opinion. For me, 56 years ago on September 9, 1963 I knew I had never seen anything as good in England, and as manager of its ecosystem for 30 years together with other nature reserves, it remained supreme.

I even wrote two books about it. One was the story of a roebuck that lived and died there, written in the style of my father's Tarka the Otter. It was called Capreol, published by Macdonald. The other was my story of the Reserve and how it is managed and with every detail of the plants, insects, birds and mammals that live there. That was called The Great Yew Forest, published by MacMillan.

The Reserve lies nearly a mile from the nearest

road and car park at West Stoke, three miles north-west of Chichester. A word of warning, it is full at weekends. Another access is from the north through the beech forests from the car park near Stoughton. The Reserve is famous worldwide for its yew forest, composed of 30,000 yew trees, the majority of which are on the steep valley slopes having spread from about 20 ancient trees in the valley. Everybody has their own idea of the age of these ancient trees, varying between 700 and 5,000 years. Imagine what you will. These monsters inspire awe, folklore, legend, pseudo-religion, ghosts, ghouls, and witchcraft; take your pick, I have heard them all. The valley is open access, and many like to sit on the downland turf in the valley amongst a carpet of wild flowers in summer.

I logged 360 species. Or you might want to see the birds – I have logged 56 breeding species over half a century, with many more in winter. I have also logged the butterflies over 47 years on a weekly five mile transect, results of which show a regular saw-tooth graph on a seven-year cycle, the peaks of which are on a steady decline. Forty species of butterfly have been recorded from a UK list of 56. Most people like to climb to the top of the hill to the so-called King's Graves which are Bronze Age tumuli and see that famous view of the Channel and the Isle of Wight. It is one I have never tired of, and neither will you. I only hope that the middle section of the coastal plain is not going to be massacred by yet more urban infilling. That would be sacrilege. Make the effort to go there and see for yourself and let your views be known.

The valley was used for 6,000 years by farmers from Neolithic times until 1939. There was a Roman presence when wheat and grapes were grown. The remains of a small bronze Age

village can just be seen if you know how and where to look for the signs.

Sheep fairs were held here in the Middle Ages. There are 16 separate indications on the ground of historic monuments. When the military took over the ground in the 1890s for a firing range, the place was peppered with bullets and bombs. I myself took part in two 100% clearances of ordnance. Underground dwellings for guerrilla fighters were constructed and the whole area was a collecting point for D-Day troops. There is so much to see in this nether world which has fascinated me for over half a century and live it through your own imagination.

First published in the Chichester Observer and reproduced here by kind permission of Richard Williamson, with whom copyright remains.