Editing Shoreham-by-Sea (section)

==Downland areas==
{{Geographic Location 
|title     = '''Nearest parishes'''
|Centre    = Shoreham-by-Sea
|Northwest = [[Coombes]]
|North     = [[Upper Beeding]]
|East      = [[Brighton and Hove]]
|West      = [[Lancing, West Sussex|Lancing]]
|South     = [[English Channel]]
}}

{{maplink
|frame=yes
|text=Notable areas around Southwick
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The [[River Adur]], the downs, and the sea support a diverse wildlife flora and fauna in the area.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Adur Valley , West Sussex, England|url=https://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur-3.htm|access-date=2022-01-14|website=www.glaucus.org.uk}}</ref> The mudflats support wading birds and gulls, including the [[ringed plover]] which attempts to breed on the coastal shingle.<ref name=":2" /> The [[pied wagtail]] is common in the town in the winter months. Insects include dragonflies over the flood plains of the river. The south- and west-facing downs attract at least 33 species of butterfly, including a nationally important population of the [[chalkhill blue]] butterfly on Mill Hill.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2007.html|title=Mill Hill 2007|work=glaucus.org.uk|access-date=26 April 2007|archive-date=12 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612220440/http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2007.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The underlying rock is chalk on the downs, with alluvium in the old river channels. The Adur district has a variety of habitats in a small area, including natural chalk downs and butterfly meadows, freshwater and reed beds, salt marsh and estuary, brackish water lagoons, woodland, shingle seashore, chalk platform undersea, and large expanses of sand.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-09-19|title=Celebrating the amazing rivers of the South Downs National Park|url=https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/celebrating-amazing-rivers-south-downs-national-park/|access-date=2022-01-14|website=South Downs National Park|language=en-GB}}</ref>

Southwick Hill and the smaller sites connected to it are the second biggest surviving complex of ancient Down pasture on the entire plateau of the Brighton Downs (the biggest is around Castle Hill, near [[Woodingdean]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Bangs|first=Dave|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701098669|title=A freedom to roam Guide to the Brighton Downs : from Shoreham to Newhaven and Beeding to Lewes|date=2008|publisher=David Bangs|isbn=978-0-9548638-1-4|location=Brighton|oclc=701098669}}</ref><sup>:209</sup>

The town is the end-point of the [[Monarch's Way]], a {{convert|615|mile|adj=on}} [[long-distance footpaths in the United Kingdom|long-distance footpath]], based on the escape route taken by [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] in 1651 after being defeated by [[Cromwell]] in the [[Battle of Worcester]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Monarch%27s+Way|title=Monarch's Way|website=Long Distance Walkers Association|access-date=15 August 2018|archive-date=1 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901153157/https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Monarch%27s+Way|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Mill Hill===
{{Main|Mill Hill, Shoreham}}
[[File:Shoreham Bank Butterfly Site - geograph.org.uk - 354544.jpg|thumb|left|Shoreham Bank (Mill Hill) butterfly site]]
[[Mill Hill, Shoreham|Mill Hill]] ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 212 071}}) is also known as Shoreham bank, as the hillside falls sharply to the [[River Adur]]. It is a [[Local Nature Reserve]] and has been famous for its butterflies since the 1820s.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Mill Hill & the Butterflies|url=https://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2009Article.htm|access-date=2022-01-08|website=www.glaucus.org.uk}}</ref> In May, the hillside is dusted yellow with [[horseshoe vetch]]: the butterflies' food plant. In August, the hillside is colourful with knapweeds, pink [[Centaurium erythraea|centaury]], the tiny white pinpoints of [[eyebright]], and the white umbels of [[wild carrot]], [[Pastinaca sativa|wild parsnip]], [[St John's wort]], and [[wild thyme]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mill Hill LNR|url=https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteLNRDetail.aspx?SiteCode=L1009032&SiteName=&countyCode=46&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea=|access-date=2022-01-08|website=Natural England - Designated Sites}}</ref> The Hill is known for its [[dingy skipper]]s and grizzled skippers in the spring, and in summer the [[chalkhill blue]] and [[Adonis blue]] are 'flagship' species of this Hill.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Knight|first=Colin|date=August 2017|title=Mill Hill - Walking the Line|url=https://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/features/archives/2012-mill-hill.php|access-date=2022-01-08|website=Butterfly Conservation - Sussex Branch}}</ref>

From Mill Hill it is possible to see Applesham Farm, which was a village at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. To the north end is another Saxon farm, Old Erringham, which King Alfred's successors fortified to defend the estuary. To the south is the Norman church of Old Shoreham, almost on the banks of the Adur, and next to it are the wooden piers of the 1781 toll bridge, which collected traffic tolls up to the 1960s.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:203</sup>

Mill Hill now suffers from [[Noise pollution|traffic and aircraft noise]]. The special mosses and lichens have gone, and the [[Helicella itala|Heath]] and [[Monacha cartusiana|Carthusian]] snails are now gone. Despite efforts by volunteers and rangers, the hill still carries far too great an area of dense and simplified scrub, which has flourished at the expense of the biodiverse turf.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:203</sup>

===Southwick Hill===
[[File:A27 Southwick Hill Tunnels - geograph.org.uk - 1053864.jpg|thumb|left|A27 Southwick Hill Tunnels]]
Southwick Hill ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 237 077}}) is owned by the [[National Trust]] and has some special wildlife areas. In 1985, local residents were presented with the plan for the [[A27 road]] bypass cutting through the Hill. Through the vigorous campaigning of activists from ABBA (the Anti-Brighton Bypass Association) the road was re-routed through a [[Southwick Hill Tunnel|tunnel under the Hill]] rather than a cutting through it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Southwick Hill Tunnel |url=https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Southwick_Hill_Tunnel |website=Sabre |publisher=Reader's Digest |access-date=September 19, 2024}}</ref>

In high summer, on the hill ('bostal') path, there is [[round-headed rampion]], blue [[scabious]], and [[autumn gentian]]. On the south side of the bridlepath, there is an un-grazed triangle with a taller sward. Here, there are still rabbits playing on the lawns amongst the [[Linum catharticum|purging flax]], [[Lotus corniculatus|eggs and bacon]], [[squinancywort]], [[eyebright]], and [[wild thyme]], which themselves mingle with tall herb patches of [[parsnip]], [[greater knapweed]], [[ragwort]], [[hogweed]], and [[St John's wort]]. There are bushes of [[raspberry]] and [[Chamerion angustifolium|rose-bay willowherb]]. Butterflies in the area include [[common blue]], [[clouded yellow]], [[Small heath (butterfly)|small heath]], [[Polygonia c-album|comma]], [[Vanessa atalanta|red admiral]], [[painted lady]], and day-flying moths like [[treble-bar]] and [[Dusky Sallow|dusky sallow]]. There are [[glowworm]]s too. In autumn, parts of the short turf may be colourful from the many [[waxcap]] and other old meadow fungi. Additional mushrooms include [[puffball]]s, [[Lepista saeva|blue legs]], and [[Flammulina velutipes|velvet shank]]; [[fairy ring]]s also form.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:211</sup>

However, Southwick Hill is not what it was. Until recent years, it was the best place on the Brighton Downs to get a sense of what Down pasture was like during late Victorian and Edwardian times through to 1940. The tenant farmer continuously grazed the whole Hill and, as a result, it was something of a time capsule from a particular period of Downland history, that of the long agricultural depression from 1876 to 1940, when scrub took over many old pastures and cattle replaced many sheep flocks.<ref name=":0"/><sup>:210</sup> In recent years, however, the Hill has been split by fencing into a southern half which is seriously under-grazed, with simplified tussocky grassland, and a northern half which remains better grazed. The southern half has now lost its close-bitten down pasture, with its flowerings of tiny herbs and fruitings of old pasture fungi. Nevertheless, as a whole the Hill still has a mixture of archaic pasture and scrub thickets, sometimes mature enough to harbour small maiden oaks, and it retains much of the wildlife lost elsewhere on the Brighton Downs.

===The Crooked Moon Hedge===
Hedges are very rare on these Downs (except around farmsteads). The Crooked Moon Hedge ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 233 070}}) lies on the top of a prehistoric field [[lynchet]]; these southern slopes of Southwick Hill were covered with an [[Iron Age]] field system whose banks lay regularly on east–west and south–north axes. At its northern end, it is the boundary between Kingston Buci and Southwick parishes, and at its southern end it bounded Kingston Buci sheep Down to the west, and one of the parish open fields to the east.

The hedge contains a lot of [[maple]] and [[ash tree|ash]] and may have been bird-sown. As per [[Hooper's rule]], the hedge is three to four centuries old.<ref name=":0"/><sup>:209</sup>

===The 'Rest and Be Thankful' stone===
[[File:Rest and Be Thankful - geograph.org.uk - 27444.jpg|thumb|left|Rest and Be Thankful]]
There is a large flat block of lichen-covered stone ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 238 069}}) by the path to Southwick Hill from Southwickhill Barn, which marks a corner on the old parish boundary between Kingston Buci and Southwick. It was notable enough to show on the Victorian Ordnance Survey maps.<ref name=":0"/><sup>:210</sup>

===Thundersbarrow Hill===
{{Main|Thundersbarrow Hill}}
[[File:Thundersbarrow Hill - geograph.org.uk - 54113.jpg|thumb|left|Thundersbarrow Hill]]
Thunders Barrow ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 229 083}}) is a large [[tumulus|barrow]], although it was partially dug away on its south side in the nineteenth century to make way for a [[dew pond]]. It sits just north of Southwick Hill. The origins of its name are unknown.

It is only at this distance from the bypass that the silence of the Downs and the sound of the birds are bigger than the noise of the road. This point marks the beginning of Downland tranquility. The ramparts of Thundersbarrow's late [[Bronze Age]] and [[Iron Age]] camp are still tall enough to walk around, although they get a bit vague on the eastern side because of plough damage, and because the Romano-British villagers built their houses just outside the rampart and right up against the barrow on that side. When the village was excavated in 1932, two corn-drying ovens were found, still with soot in the flues and bits of charred grain.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Martin Down style enclosure, bowl barrow, Iron Age hillfort, Romano-British village and associated field system on Thundersbarrow Hill, Non Civil Parish - 1015124 {{!}} Historic England|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1015124|access-date=2022-01-06|website=historicengland.org.uk|language=en}}</ref>

===Erringham Hole===
Erringham Hole ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 231 082}}) is the bushy [[combe]] to the east of Thundersbarrow, whose Celtic villagers built the huge field [[lynchet]]s, parts of which are up to 12 feet in height. It was called 'Erringham Hole' because it was part of Old Erringham Farm. Old Erringham Hole (not to be confused with Whitelot Bottom, which is the ploughed land further east down the combe) has flowery chalk grassland, scrub, rank grassland, and lots of rabbits. The rabbits encourage rabbit-resistant plants like tall woolly [[Verbascum thapsus|mullein]] (complete with [[Shargacucullia verbasci|mullein moth]] caterpillars, [[Verbena officinalis|hound's-tongue]], [[ground ivy]], and eyebright. Until 25 years ago, the combe remained substantially open and the ancient lynchet system was plain to see, but cessation of grazing and a lack of scrub control has allowed the species-rich Down pasture to be lost to simplified scrub and even secondary woodland.<ref name=":0"/><sup>:212</sup>

===Hazelholt Bottom===
[[File:Farmland at Hazelholt Bottom - geograph.org.uk - 2581871.jpg|thumb|left|Farmland at Hazelholt Bottom]]
Hazelholt Bottom ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 235 084}}) is a tranquil slope with large flowery glades. There are often [[Roe Deer|roe deer]] in the wide corn field below the slope. The [[National Trust]] own the south slope and Whitelot Bottom further south, but Whitelot was ploughed up after 1945 and has never been returned to public use.

Hazelholt has rich old chalk grassland with [[Cowslip (European plant)|cowslips]] in spring and [[devil's-bit scabious]] in September. In mid-summer, there are many butterflies, including [[adonis blue]] and [[Chalkhill Blue|chalkhill blue]]. At the head of the combe, there are more old grassland and great [[blackberry]] thickets. Since 1945, scrub has taken over much of this former open slope. The remaining grassland is only lightly grazed, allowing growth of bramble and thorn and a loss of its ancient down pasture character.<ref name=":0"/><sup>:212</sup>

===Freshcombe===
[[File:Freshcombe and Summersdene Farm, Truleigh Hill, West Sussex - geograph.org.uk - 1805381.jpg|thumb|left|Freshcombe and Summersdene Farm, Truleigh Hill]]
Freshcombe ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 230 092}}) is owned by the National Trust, but was leased away from their management{{When|date=January 2023}}. It is threatened by scrub expansion and insufficient grazing. Its slopes have very old [[gorse]] thickets; they are shown as well-established on the 1873 [[OS map]], and may be centuries older than that.

This is the only site in the [[South Downs]] that contains the plant [[saw-wort]], which looks like a slimmer version of [[knapweed]], and still blooms profusely in a little glade amongst the gorse. It is a survivor from the days of the Downland heaths. It survives here because the soil must have a strong clay-with-flints influence. The glade where it blooms also contains flowers of [[Betonica officinalis|betony]], [[red clover]], [[hawkbit]], and [[St John's wort]].<ref name=":0" /><sup>:213</sup>

===Old Erringham Farmstead===
[[File:Stile, Old Erringham - geograph.org.uk - 1072832.jpg|thumb|left|Stile, Old Erringham farm]]
Old Erringham Farmstead ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 205 076}}) has an old flint farmhouse with great chimneys and part-Horsham slab roofing{{Clarification needed|reason=What is this roofing style / material?|date=January 2023}}, and ramshackle old flint barns. It has one of only two remaining medieval manorial chapels on the Brighton Downs (the other at [[Swanborough Manor]]), which now functions as a front garden shed for one of the modern farm workers cottages just to the south of the old farmhouse. It has a tiny ecclesiastical window on its south face.

The farm is designated as an [[ancient monument]], incorporating the remains of a medieval settlement and an eleventh century [[ringwork]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=Shrunken medieval settlement at Old Erringham, Buckingham, West Sussex|url=https://ancientmonuments.uk/113337-shrunken-medieval-settlement-at-old-erringham-adur-buckingham-ward|access-date=2022-01-08|website=Ancient Monuments UK}}</ref> It was presumably built as a defence against the Vikings{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}, though it's difficult to pick it out amongst the grassy plats now.

It is a mixed farm with corn crops, beef cattle, a bit of livery stabling, and hay meadows. The farm manages the sites of Old Erringham Combe and Anchor Bottom to preserve their natural value. Around the farmstead there is [[red star-thistle]] (a Brighton Downs speciality), [[musk thistle]], [[spear thistle]], [[welted thistle]], [[creeping thistle]], [[teasel]], and [[viper's bugloss]], all adding summer colour.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:204</sup>

===Old Erringham Combe and Shaw===
[[File:Downland near Erringham - geograph.org.uk - 1072739.jpg|thumb|left|Downland near Erringham]]
Old Erringham Combe ({{Gbmappingsmall|TQ 205 081}}) is an old-fashioned mosaic of habitats, making it a great refuge for Downland wildlife. The south-facing bank is the hottest place, but below it there are willows and a tiny tongue of wet grassland where [[lesser marsh grasshopper]], [[autumn lady's-tresses]] orchid, [[bastard toadflax]], rockrose, [[Betonica officinalis|betony]], [[wild thyme]], and other herbs grow.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:205</sup>

Summer butterflies in the area include [[wall brown]] and [[clouded yellow]], and day-flying moths like [[yellow belle]], [[Dusky Sallow|dusky sallow]], [[common carpet]], and [[grass moths]] enjoy the drying grassland. The rare [[Monacha cartusiana|Carthusian snail]] (''Monacha cartusiana)'' still exists in this combe, possibly due to centuries of cattle grazing.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:205</sup>

Old Erringham Shaw is a tangled wood of [[sycamore]], [[ash (tree)|ash]], [[elm]], and thorn. It's more open at the northern end facing the combe, where the remains of four big old broken [[beech]]es and lots of [[may blossom]] make it a good place for insects.<ref name=":0" /><sup>:205</sup>

=== Slonk Hill ===
[[File:Track between Slonk Hill Farm and Mossy Bottom Barn - geograph.org.uk - 712703.jpg|thumb|left|Track between Slonk Hill Farm and Mossy Bottom Barn]]
Slonk Hill ({{gbmappingsmall|TQ 222 070}}): there were at least two [[Bronze Age]] [[tumulus|barrows]] and a little [[Iron Age]] settlement on the Hill.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Historic England Research Records: Slonk Hill|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=398691&resourceID=19191|access-date=2022-01-08|website=Heritage Gateway}}</ref> They were surrounded by a rectangular ditched enclosure and perhaps made into a 'temenos' or temple. Ritual deposits of animals and coins were buried at the site.<ref>Rudling, David (2003). ''The Archaeology of Sussex to AD 2000'',

Heritage Marketing Publications Ltd</ref><sup>:122</sup> Evening shadows reveal dips and hummocks at the Hill's southern end, although they are probably due to the trench digging of the large army camp that came here during the First World War.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

There are three places that were spared the damage of decades of [[agribusiness]] on the hill: an island of old Down pasture on the eastern slope, an old bostal track, which winds down the slope at its southern end, and a patch of hillside a few hundred yards north, surrounded by [[Iron Age]] field [[lynchet]]s. More recently, the use of agrochemicals has stopped, and the hillside is again colourful with herbs. The intact areas have [[pyramidal orchid]], [[Dactylorhiza fuchsii|spotted orchid]], [[meadow oat-grass]], [[crested hair-grass]], and [[round-headed rampion]].<ref name=":0" /><sup>:206</sup>

=== Mossy Bottom ===
Mossy Bottom ({{Gbmappingsmall|TQ 226 082}}) derives its name from 'Muster' Bottom, where the shepherd mustered his sheep. Mossy Bottom slope is statutory [[access land]] under the right to roam 'CROW' Act (2000), but public usage is heavily challenged by prohibitive notices and poor access provision. It has boney [[Iron Age]] [[lynchet]]s across it made by the peasant farmers who lived in Thundersbarrow village. They used to be called "Thunder's Steps." There are big old anthills, and plants such as [[large thyme]], dropwort, cowslip, basil, [[harebell]], and [[round-headed rampion]].<ref name=":0" /><sup>:206</sup>