 |
|
|
walking tour
The guided walk takes about an hour.
The walk is relatively easy, but may be muddy in places. It is unsuitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs.
From the farm entrance, turn right onto the road and walk towards the village. Fork left up Nell Hill to the Downs. As you climb the hill, you will be able to see over Eastbrook Farm on your left.
1. Lower Nell
The field at the bottom of the hill is called Lower Nell. It is sown with ryegrass/clover ley which forms the fertility building phase of the crop rotation. Clover is a legume and is one of the most important plants on an organic farm. By adding ('fixing') nitrogen in the soil, it helps build up fertility for the current and future crops.
2. Upper Nell.
Continue up the road, Upper Nell is the next field on the left.
Red clover leys are used to make good quality silage for feeding the livestock. The silage clamp beside the road is used to store and 'pickle' the cut grass until it is required over the winter months. The tyres weigh down the plastic sheet which covers the clamp and keeps the contents airtight. Organic standards require 60 percent of feed for the dairy herd to come from grass/clover based forage.
Continue along the road, past the entrance to the farm on your right, and turn onto the Ridgeway.
3. The Ridgeway
This ancient track crosses Eastbrook Farm on a high, open ridge of chalk downland. Native trees form a high hedge here. White flowers of blackthorn brighten the hedge in March and the hawthorn flowers in May. Identify elder, with creamy white flower heads in June. Look for puple elder berries, blue sloes (blackthorn) and red haws in September.
The field to your left is called Ridgeway Field and currently our potatoes and carrots are being harvested with the Brussel Sprouts being harvested in about November.
Flaxfield, on your right, is a grass ley.
Continue along the Ridgeway for about 500 metres, passing the gateway into Ridgeway and Elcombe Field. Look for the footpath sign pointing to Bishopstone and Eastbrook Valley. Turn left here over the stile and into Elcombe Field.
4. Elcombe Field
Follow the grass field margin, keeping the hedge on your right. Head for the stile in the corner of the field and cross over into the dry valley.
5. The dry valley
Climb over the stile and head into the dry valley
This beautiful and hidden valley was probably carved in the Ice Age, by a river rushing over frozen ground. Today, rainwater seeps through the chalk and there is no stream to be seen. The farmland here is kept as pasture under a Countryside Stewardship Scheme which looks after the wildlife and allows people to walk the valley.
The calcareous grassland is rich in wild flora. Look for cowslips here in the spring, bee orchids and quaking grass will flower in the summer. High above, you will hear and perhaps catch a glimpse of the skylark or lapwing in the spring. The undisturbed grass sward provides wonderful nesting opportunities for these once common farmland birds.
Follow the track at the bottom between Lower Nell and Sixteen Acres. Turn left at the end onto the tarmac road and back to the farmyard entrance. |
|
|
|
|
|
