Natural England

South Downs

Prominent Chalk outcrop rising gently from the South Coast Plain with a dramatic north-facing scarp and distinctive chalk cliffs formed where the Downs end abruptly at the sea. A chalk landscape of rolling arable fields and close-cropped grassland on the bold scarps, rounded open ridges and sculpted dry valleys.

•Lightly settled landscape with scattered villages, hamlets and farmsteads - flint is conspicuous in the buildings, walls of villages, farms and churches.

•Roman roads and drove roads are common and characteristic features and the area is rich in visually prominent prehistoric remains, particularly Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows and prominent Iron Age hillforts.
In the east, rivers from the Low Weald cut through the Downs to form river valleys and broad alluvial floodplains with rectilinear pastures and wet grazing meadows - a contrast with the dry uplands. Above these valleys, the high, exposed, rounded uplands of white chalk have a simple land cover of few trees, an absence of hedgerows, occasional small planted beech clumps, and large arable areas and some grassland.

•The eastern Downs have a distinctive escarpment which rises prominently and steeply above the Low Weald. It is indented by steep combes or dry valleys.

•Woodlands - both coniferous and broadleaved - are a distinctive feature of the western Downs. 

•In the west, large estates are important features with formal designed parkland providing a contrast to the more typical farmland pasture.

For further details on this character area and for an introduction to the region, please see the PDF documents in the box at the top right hand side of this page.