Ancient yews and valley kings
Tucked away in a gentle fold of the South Downs lies Kingley Vale, a national nature reserve containing buried kings and Europe’s largest yew forest, says Roly Smith
Kingly Vale, West Sussex
Now a 160-hectare National Nature woodland Reserve,of Kingleythe Vale is an extraordinary Arthur Rackham fairy tale landscape of twisted, gnarled yews, some of which may be the oldest living things in Britain.
As you walk through this magical forest, you half expect to see one of Rackham’s fairies flitting between the writhing blood-red trunks and branches. The poisonous, coral-red berries of the yew, described by nature writer Geoffrey Grigson as one of the most tropical of English sights when seen against a blue sky, are known here by the charming local name ‘snotty gogs’.
BATTLE-HARDENED
Traditionally, the strong, springy timber of the yew was used to make the longbows that defeated the French in the battles of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt. But Kingley’s yews suffered even worse at the hands of British and Canadian troops, who used them for target practice when they were rehearsing for the D-Day landings in 1944.
Above Grigson’s “blacktufted density” of the yew forest, four Bronze Age tumuli, known as the Devil’s Humps, crown the chalky downland of the significantly named Bow Hill (206m). The views from here, towards the sparkling waters of the English Channel and the floating blue outline of the Isle of Wight, are stunning.
These flower-rich downs support nearly 40 species of butterfly, including the azure chalkhill blue, holly blue and brimstone. And overhead, red kites and buzzards soar on the invisible thermals. Crowning the brow of the hill “in the midst of this nature reserve which he brought into being” is the sarsen stone memorial to the pioneer ecologist Sir Arthur Tansley, first chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England). Tansley loved this place, and this was his favourite view in all of Britain. On a summer’s day, it’s easy to see why.