Notes from Lullington Heath – Fifty Years On

On the seventeenth of July 1956, approximately 155 acres of chalk heath, grassland and scattered scrub lying within the parish of Lullington were declared a national nature reserve. Formerly known, to some, as Lullington Brow and to others as Old Kiln Bottom, the name Lullington Heath was adopted by the Nature Conservancy, who had acquired the site. The reason for declaration was that Lullington Heath had become the last significant remaining area of an exceedingly rare habitat type called chalk heath, on which a thin layer of acidic soil overlay the chalk. The result of this most unusual circumstance was the coexistence of heathland species such as bell heather and common ling with plants, such as salad burnet, found only on the chalk. Old photographs show an open expanse of land known to be heavily grazed by rabbits. By the time of declaration the reserve was already changing. Myxomatosis struck in 1954 and the effects of the near extermination of the rabbits was apparent within the year: in certain places the grasses grew from two to nine inches whilst, more significantly, the gorse, previously nibbled to low tufts, shot up as much as eighteen inches – and we are still trying to get it under control. We live in the Age of Heritage – a time seemingly compelled to do all within its power to preserve in aspic some romantic illusion of an indefinable ‘golden age’, to which we imagine we can escape from the perils and uncertainties of our own day. It is as if we feel so much guilt about the impact of humankind on the planet that, despite the massive contradiction, we seek to create the Garden of Eden before Adam was formed from the dust. What folly: you simply cannot step into the same river twice and the idea of turning the clock back is pure nonsense. Nature is dynamic, things change: surely it is far more important to understand our own part in this and strive, in so far as we have influence, to promote such change as to ensure a countryside full of beauty and wildlife which can coexist with the necessity to provide the basic needs of humanity. Tim Beech p.s. I should probably make clear that the views expressed above are my own and not those of English Nature.