Pewsey Downs

View West, Walkers Hill, Pewsey Downs

Pewsey Downs (grid reference SU113636) is a 305.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs north of Pewsey in Wiltshire, notified in 1951. It includes the Pewsey Downs National Nature Reserve.

Plants

In 1859, the Reverent Alexander Irvine recorded the following species of plants on the Pewsey Downs; Cirsium acaule; Carduus nutans; Cirsium eriophorum; Draba verna; Bunium bulbocastanum; Spiraea filipendula; Medicago sativa; Onobrychis sativa; Cichorium intybus; Campanula glomerata; Campanula rotundifolia; Asperula cynanchica; Polygala vulgaris; Saxifraga granulata; Anacamptis morio; Dactylorhiza maculata; Gymnadenia conopsea; and Botrychium lunaria.^[1]

Pewsey Downs National Nature Reserve

The Pewsey Downs National Nature Reserve is an area of unspoiled chalk downland situated on a steep slope above the Vale of Pewsey. It includes the south-facing slopes of Milk Hill, Walkers Hill and Knap Hill. The habitat is mostly grassland and the site includes the Alton Barnes White Horse. The reserve is a Special Area of Conservation and part of the Pewsey Downs Site of Special Scientific Interest.^[2]

The main grass species in the community are sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina) and red fescue (Festuca rubra) and there is an absence of the dwarf sedge (Carex humilis), which is common at other downland sites nearby.^[3] Flowering plants found in the reserve include such rarities as the early gentian (Gentianella anglica), the burnt-tip orchid (Neotinea ustulata), the lesser butterfly orchid (Platanthera bifolia) and the frog orchid (Coeloglossum viride). These, along with other wildflowers, provide the nectar on which many species of butterfly feed. The butterflies found on the reserve include the internationally rare marsh fritillary, the adonis blue and the chalkhill blue.^[2]

References

↑ Alexander Irvine (1859). The Phytologist: A Botanical Journal. William Pamplin. pp. 102–103.
1 2 "Pewsey Down NNR". Wiltshire's National Nature Reserves. Wiltshire County Council. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
↑ Derek Ratcliffe (2012). A Nature Conservation Review: Volume 1: The Selection of Biological Sites of National Importance to Nature Conservation in Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-521-20329-6.

English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 14 August 2006)

External links

English Nature website (SSSI information)

Biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire

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

Coordinates: 51°22′17″N 1°50′21″W / 51.37135°N 1.83905°W / 51.37135; -1.83905

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