An organic interlude...

Luddesdown's "organic" vineyard has suddenly blossomed.  A sudden and spectacular bloom of wild flowers seems to be a testament to a policy of zero herbicides...

View from Wrenches Shaw...

The deep ploughing that so badly scarred the Luddesdown valley landscape earlier in the year seems to have unearthed a seed bank that has, in some places, now produced a remarkable flush of wild flowers.

The yellow is largely rape or some other mustard, but this is mixed in with the yellows of hawkweeds and sowthistles, as well as a profusion of common poppies and camomile...

View south at Cutter Ridge Road...

Looking west from Cutter Ridge Road...

A mixture of Common Fumitory, Chicory and Borage adds a splash of blue in amongst the reds and yellows...

Borage...

Common fumitory...

Chicory, with Painted Lady butterflies...

As can be seen above, the non-use of herbicides and insecticides has also given rise to an explosion of insect life, particularly bees and butterflies.  Most numerous are the Large and Small Whites that have been attracted to the pesticide-free rape and mustard in their thousands, but 2019 is also a boom year for Painted Ladies, hundreds of which were flying gloriously and powerfully around the fields. Brimstones, Peacocks and Red Admirals were also well-represented, though the vicious spring hack-back of the hedgerows seems to have scared away the Gatekeepers...

Peacock on crimson clover...

Brimstone on Toadflax...

It was also good to see that some Skylarks had returned to the field margins after being driven away in Spring. The long grass was densely flowered with the purple flowers of Knapweed...

Knapweed in the field margins...

I have a feeling that this wild flower bonanza cannot be allowed to continue, however. The vines are being crowded out by this super-abundance of home-grown vegetation, a state of affairs that surely isn't economically tolerable. This bloom is, of course, a one-off brought on by the breaking up of the soil structure. Buried seeds have burst into life for one final, glorious bloom

The vines must be protected as they are what will be making the money. I have little doubt that the vineyard land managers will soon be doing some heavy weeding, perhaps even carefully applying a hefty dose of good old glyphosphate or some other such poison, so that the precious vines can establish themselves free from the competition of pesky local flora and fauna.

Enjoy the flowers, birds, bees and butterflies in the Luddesdown vineyard while you can because I think they will all soon be gone for ever, and not by means of natural seasonal changes. The current flush of flora will not be permitted to set seed, and so gradually the wildflowers will die out.

All that will be left is a dull, sterile monoculture of vines, with vast areas of fields criss-crossed and defaced by the galvanised steels wires and supports.

The old days of the beautiful variety of organic arable farmland at Luddesdown are now gone, possibly forever...

Kitchen Field...

Kitchen Field and its surroundings are still putting on a good show of colour. The yellow Rough Hawksbeard still fills Twenty Acres field...

Twenty Acres field as seen from Kitchen Field....

The poppies in Kitchen Field are starting to give way to the Ox-Eye Daisies...

This Dark Green Fritillary was seen on some Hawkbeard...

Longhoes to the Darnley Mausoleum...

This is the route I took.  Field names are taken from the 1839 Tithe Commissioner's map reproduced in Derek Church's book, "Cuxton: A Kentish Village"...

Ranscombe reserve - 1839 field names...

The name "Longhoes" seems to encompass both the woods and the field to the south these days. Whatever you call it, Middle Longhoes (locally now called "the Poppy Field") is a blaze of colour this year...

Middle Longhoes, looking east...

This field got a brutal scalping in the winter to free up the soil, and I suspect the spectacular eruption of poppies and Vipers Bugloss is down to a bit of deliberate seeding by Plantlife as part of the land plan.

At the edge of the path between the field and Longhoes Wood, a stretch of Rock Rose also was in bloom...

Rock Rose...

Rock Rose is the foodplant of the Brown Argus butterfly and I was hoping to find a few around, but no such luck. There were plenty of other butterflies to see, however.

The poppies weren't confined to Longhoes.  This stand could be seen on the corner of Nether Prebles...

Poppies at Nether Prebles..

Despite the dry weather, the barley in Tuggs and Nine Acres still looked fresh and green...

Just off of the path, a stand of Meadow Clary was in bloom...

Meadow Clary...

Further down the path, Twenty Acres seems to have been given over to Rough Hawksbeard...

Twenty Acres from Kitchen Field...

The red poppies in Kitchen Field are giving way to the white flowers of Chamomile...

Kitchen Field...

Climbing back up the hill along the edge of Birch Wood brings you out onto the track that runs past Lord Darnley's mausoleum...

Cobham mausoleum...

The Earls of Darnley were usually buried in Westminster Abbey, but by the late 18th century, their vaults were full. In his will, the 3rd Earl, John Bligh, left instructions for a mausoleum to be built in Cobham Park, Kent, where he and his descendants could be laid to rest.

After the Earl's death, the family commissioned architect James Wyatt to design a mausoleum following the instructions set out in his will.  The mausoleum was completed in 1786, at a cost of £9000 (well over £1 million in today's prices) but for reasons that remain unclear (possibly involving a dispute with the Bishop of Rochester) the Darnley Mausoleum was not consecrated and could not be used for burial.

During the 20th-century the Earls of Darnley struggled to maintain the Cobham estate, with the mausoleum’s declining state highlighted in Country Life magazine 1939. Moving out of Cobham Hall in the 1950s, the family sold off most of the estate, although the Darnley Mausoleum and surrounding woodland remained in the family’s hands.

Without anyone to watch over the mausoleum, it became a magnet for vandals, with graffiti and over 90 wrecked cars despoiling the site. After an arson attack in the crypt in November 1980, the floor of the chapel collapsed, and the elegant outer staircase was destroyed. With much of the interior blackened, damaged and destroyed, the future looked bleak for the mausoleum.

After a public inquiry, developers were granted permission to convert the mausoleum into a palatial residence, but fortunately they went bankrupt before the scheme could be realised.

With the mausoleum and surrounding woodland open to further decay and vandalism, the Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme (CAMS) was formed in 2001.  This partnership involved Gravesham Borough Council, Kent County Council, English Nature, The Woodland Trust, English Heritage and the National Trust. CAMS were eventually able to provide the funding for Gravesham Borough Council to buy the mausoleum and the surrounding woodland for £150,000.  CAMS also secured £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund and later £746,000 from the Office of The Deputy Prime Minister and Union Railways, to fund the restoration.

A condition of the Heritage Lottery Fund was that ownership and maintenance of the property would transfer to the National Trust. In April 2014, the Mausoleum opened its doors to visitors. Usually open on the first Sunday of the month from April - September, South Lodge Barn (about a mile down the track towards Cobham) is the information centre for the Mausoleum. As well as opening on the first Sunday, the National Trust volunteers try to open the Mausoleum one day during the week.

Walking back down the hill through the woods brings you out onto a track running along the edge of woodland overlooking the Warren Road valley.  The fields seem to have been left fallow (something the skylarks driven out from the recently ploughed-up Luddesdowne valley are grateful for) and the Ox-Eye daisies were in full flower...

 Just off the path, a lone Common Spotted Orchid was in bloom...

Common Spotted orchid...

Towards Luddesdown...

The purple flowers of Common Restharrow were much in evidence...

Common Restharrow with Black Medick (the yellow flowers)...

Planting the vineyard...

After resembling a chalk quarry for a few months, the deep-ploughed fields of Luddesdown valley have now been planted with a complement of vines...

In the pictures above you can just make out the metre-high steel rods that the growing vines will be sleeved to once they grow a bit more.

One welcome bonus is that the act of planting seems to have smoothed down the ploughed-up public footpaths across the fields to the extent that you can actually walk comfortably on them once more.

This work has been achieved remarkably quickly. Although the process was mechanised, the French workforce must still have worked extremely hard to get something like 400 acres done in the past couple of weeks.  

As far as I can tell though, nothing more has been added to the soil. The ground still looks like a quarry and many of the vine stems look like they have been planted in pure chalk. I cannot see them growing too well, somehow.  

It all seems very odd. I guess time will tell.

Orchids at Ranscombe...

The end of May is a good time to have a ferret around Ranscombe farm reserve if you are interested in orchids.  I am certainly no expert (nor particularly observant) but I managed to find eight different species on a two-hour mooch...

Links to information about each species can be found under each photo.

Bee Orchid....

Common Spotted Orchid

Lady Orchid

Lady Orchid - different specimen, close-up showing "the lady"...

Man Orchid...

Fly Orchid...

White Hellerborine...

Common Twayblade...

Pyramidal Orchid...

Holly Hill to the Luddesdowne moonscape...

I started this walk from Holly Hill House in darkest Snodland. Heading north along the main path leads down the hill through Punish Wood and onto Wrangling Lane.  At the bottom of Lockyers Hill, the track of the Wealdway can be taken.

The Wealdway, towards Luddesdowne...

This heads northwards towards Luddesdowne, and used to offer spectacular views of the lush arable farmland across the Luddesdowne valley.  However, the new landowners have completely transformed the nature of the valley in their quest to convert this centuries-old arable farmland into a modern vineyard.

The full extent of this work can be seen from the top of the hill by Round Wood...

The moonscape of Luddesdowne Valley...

What would normally be lush green farmland has been replaced by something resembling the former chalk quarries of Halling.  The deep ploughing (presumably for the benefit of the vines that may eventually be planted) has not only brought the underlying chalk to the surface in great ugly, dusty swathes, but has also obliterated many of the public footpaths.  That is not to say that access has been blocked, but the old pathways that had been worn smooth by the passage of walkers have been roughly ploughed up, and only vaguely reinstated by driving a tractor up and down them a few times...

What's left of footpath NS214 from Cutter Ridge Road to Wrenches Shaw...

These deep ruts in no way replace the original paths. Using them is now a slow, hip-grinding, knee-wrenching, ankle-twisting experience. That, combined with the desertification of the valley, has removed any pleasure from walking in the area for the moment, which is a great shame.  I shall be taking other paths this summer, I think.

Another act of "land management" has been the flailing of the hedgerows to within an inch of their lives. The old hedgerows were around six to eight feet high and were probably overdue for a bit of a tidy-up. Instead, they have been crudely hacked down to about three feet. Mercifully, Hawthorn hedges are tough old things and these are already recovering from the brutal treatment given to them. Still, the hack-back should stop the wild birds from nesting in them for a while, or providing cover for all those Gatekeeper butterflies that used to patrol Cutter Ridge Road in the summer...

Hacked hedgerows...

Ironically, one of the things to have survived these activities is the sign proclaiming the area to be a "Roadside Nature Reserve"...

Towards Luddesdowne Church from Wrenches Shaw (10)...

At the top of the path above, just behind where this picture was taken from by the edge of Wrenches Shaw, can be found a memorial bench, to the memory of the late Ray Bassett and his wife Eiley.  I understand that Ray used to be a champion of the footpaths around Luddesdown and did much to ensure they remained clear and open over the years. I wonder what he would have made of all this?

Still, I suppose these things are all part of the great cycle of change that these lands are forever subjected to. I had not envisaged the mechanics of preparing a vineyard to be quite as destructive as it has turned out to be, but I assume that the current mess is merely transient. The land, paths and hedges are likely to recover in time and (unlike most of North Kent) we can be thankful that the area is unlikely to be Redrowed, Bellwayed or Persimmoned in the forseeable future.

But surely this cannot have done the soil fertility any good at all.  The soil in the valley wasn't great, but deep ploughing it has surely removed what little fertility there was.  It'll be interesting to see if any soil remediation work takes place before planting.  I can't imagine anything growing on this will be commercially viable otherwise.

Fortunately, I have kept some memories and records of how things used to look.

Stonyfield Wood

I am sorry to relate that Stonyfield Woods (at the top of the slope to the north of Court Farm in Halling) has undergone a brutal bout of coppicing. Stonyfield is (sorry, was) largely chestnut coppice, but there were some mature single specimen trees in their absolute prime that have been taken down as well as the coppice stuff.  A few mature but rather twisty oaks and beech (the non-coppicing trees) have mercifully been left behind as might be expected.

Yes, coppicing was long overdue, but I always thought that single specimen trees got left. You can see the size of some of the trees taken out by the size of the logs in the picture below. A ring count showed some of them to be over 90 years old.  Why the sudden demand for timber after all this time?

I was puzzled by this as Cemex (or at least, their tenants) have been pretty good at looking after the extensive swathe of SSSI woodland (the Halling and Trottiscliffe Escarpment) that runs to the north of Pilgrim’s Road across the top of the hill and down either side of Bush Valley to Warren Road.  They kept the footpaths and farm tracks clear and the brambles under control and pretty much left the trees alone.

But it seems it doesn’t belong to Cemex any more.  After some tortuous dealings with the Land Registry, it seems that Cemex have sold their land holdings off, mostly to the same people who have just bought Court and Brookers Farm: Vineyard Farms a.k.a. MDCV Ltd). It seems that, not content with ploughing up that wonderful valley for their vineyard, the Vineyard folk are now attacking the woods as well. 

Why now, I wonder? Any tree felling works in an SSSI require a licence from the forestry commission (though I guess Cemex simply transferred that to the new owners as they are good for 10 years). But Natural England also have to grant permission for tree felling as well. The work is being done by Tilhill, who check out as a pretty responsible company (no Environment Agency prosecutions, anyway), so one assumes all is in order.  (Update: it was. I checked with the Forestry Commission and there is a felling licence in place, although Natural England said they could find no record for permission for SSSI woodland tree work "at the moment." But NE are pretty hopeless, to be honest, and I actually trust Tilhill, after talking to their guys doing the work in the woods.)

It doesn’t really matter. The trees will quickly grow back. But Stonyfield was home to a thriving colony of White Admiral butterflies. Their larvae feed on honeysuckle on which they hibernate over the winter, and have doubtless been destroyed along with the trees.

They are pretty fussy about the condition of the honeysuckle they lay their eggs on. They like straggly stuff in the shade on a stand about 10 feet high but with the bottom couple of meters free from nearby brambles etc, as that's where they lay their eggs. The larvae aren't hard to find at this stage as they sit on the tips of the centre stem of the tip of honeysuckle leaf and nibble either side away. In September they fold a honeysuckle leaf over themselves and settle down to hibernate until around late March. A couple of years ago I found four of these "hibernacula" on a big stand of honeysuckle on a tree that had blown over in a storm. I was able to raise the caterpillars through to adulthood in the spring, releasing them back at Stonyfield, which was very rewarding.  

In July on a sunny day you could often see as many as a dozen of these beautiful insects (and that's a lot, for this species) flying through the dappled sunlight on the main path, with their powerful wing-beats followed by a characteristic glide. 

But no more. White Admirals are not a protected species (though they should be - they are scarce) and the coppicing of woodland in SSSI areas is not illegal assuming the right licensing and permissions are in place, so Vineyard Farms have broken no laws.

But they are not endearing themselves to anyone at the moment, or at least, not to me.