Calstone and Cherhill Downs
Calstone and Cherhill Downs (grid reference SU047692) is a 128.6 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1971, including downland at Calstone Wellington and Cherhill. It provides one of the best examples in Wiltshire of unimproved downland.[1]
The site forms part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site lies towards the western edge of the Marlborough Downs, has a narrow plateau of the Middle and Upper Chalk and descends steeply to the north and more gently to the south. The south-facing slope has a complex structure of narrow, steep-sided dry valleys and coombes and has a mixture of grasses, sedges and forbs. Here grow a typical calcareous community including glaucus sedge, sheep’s-fescue, meadow oat-grass, heath-grass and common quaking-grass, together with cowslip, salad burnet, rock-rose, betony, field fleawort, bastard-toadflax, round-headed rampion, small scabious, devil’s-bit scabious, horseshoe vetch, kidney vetch and chalk milkwort. Orchids found here include, early purple orchid, burnt orchid, fragrant orchid, bee orchid and frog orchid, the last three all being common here.[1]
The site is also excellent for invertebrates, hosting the small blue, chalkhill blue, Duke of Burgundy and marsh fritillary, as well as the rare wart-biter bush cricket and the uncommon bug Sehirus dubius The lime-loving heath snail Helicella itala is also found here. There is a dewpond that holds water all year round; newts are found here as well as the Emperor dragonfly and the azure damselfly Coenagrion puella.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "Calstone and Cherhill Downs" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
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- Acres Farm Meadow
- River Avon System
- Baverstock Juniper Bank
- Bencroft Hill Meadows
- Bentley Wood
- Bincknoll Dip Woods
- Blackmoor Copse
- Botley Down
- Bowerchalke Downs
- Box Mine
- Bracknell Croft
- Bradley Woods
- Bratton Downs
- Brickworth Down and Dean Hill
- Brimsdown Hill
- Britford Water Meadows
- Burcombe Down
- Burderop Wood
- Calstone and Cherhill Downs
- Camp Down
- Chilmark Quarries
- Chickengrove Bottom
- Chilton Foliat Meadows
- Clattinger Farm
- Clearbury Down
- Cley Hill
- Cloatley Manor Farm Meadows
- Clout's Wood
- Coate Water
- Cockey Down
- Colerne Park and Monk's Wood
- The Coombes, Hinton Parva
- Cotswold Water Park
- Cranborne Chase
- Dank's Down and Truckle Hill
- Distillery Farm Meadows
- East Harnham Meadows
- Ebsbury Down
- Emmett Hill Meadows
- Figsbury Ring
- Fonthill Grottoes
- Fyfield Down
- Gallows Hill
- Goldborough Farm Meadows
- Great Cheverell Hill
- Great Yews
- Gutch Common
- Ham Hill
- Hang Wood
- Harries Ground, Rodbourne
- Haydon Meadow
- Heath Hill Farm
- Homington and Coombe Bissett Downs
- Honeybrook Farm
- Inwood, Warleigh
- Jones's Mill
- River Kennet
- Kennet and Lambourn Floodplain
- King's Play Hill
- Knapp and Barnett's Downs
- Knighton Downs and Wood
- Landford Bog
- Landford Heath
- Langley Wood and Homan's Copse
- Little Grubbins Meadow
- Long Knoll
- Loosehanger Copse and Meadows
- Lower Coombe and Ferne Brook Meadows
- Lower Woodford Water Meadows
- Midford Valley Woods
- Morgan's Hill
- The New Forest
- North Meadow, Cricklade
- Odstock Down
- Out Woods
- Parsonage Down
- Pewsey Downs
- Picket and Clanger Wood
- Piggledene
- Pike Corner
- Pincombe Down
- Porton Down
- Porton Meadows
- Prescombe Down
- Rack Hill
- Ravensroost Wood
- Restrop Farm and Brockhurst Wood
- Rotherley Downs
- Roundway Down and Covert
- Salisbury Plain
- Savernake Forest
- Scratchbury & Cotley Hills
- Silbury Hill
- Spye Park
- Starveall and Stony Down
- Steeple Langford Down
- Stockton Wood and Down
- Stoke Common Meadows
- Stratford Toney Down
- Sutton Lane Meadows
- Throope Down
- River Till
- Tytherington Down
- Upper Waterhay Meadow
- Upton Cow Down
- West Yatton Down
- Whiteparish Common
- Whitesheet Hill
- Win Green Down
- Winklebury Hill
- Winsley Mines
- Wylye and Church Dean Downs
- Yarnbury Castle
- Neighbouring areas
- Avon
- Berkshire
- Dorset
- Gloucestershire
- Hampshire
- Oxfordshire
- Somerset
51°25′18″N 1°56′02″W / 51.42179°N 1.93380°W / 51.42179; -1.93380