Mind the green gap
The seemingly natural beauty of the North Downs has been hard fought for
Thanks to dedicated campaigning, the Kent Downs are still rural, reveals Fiona Reynolds
THE North Downs are a gift of history which is literally priceless, precious as well as vulnerable.’ These are not my words, but those of Peter Brandon, a geographer and long-time campaigner for the beautiful, but pressurised landscapes of south-east England.
How right he is. Walking with a friend from Detling to Hollingbourne on the North Downs Way on one of the most glorious October days I’ve ever known, the sweep of chalk downland was matched only by astonishing views over an England that seemed immune to modern pressures.
Look more closely, however, and there, at the foot of the Downs, only discernible as an occasional windscreen catches the sun, is the M20. Next to it is the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which opened in 2003 to speed travellers from London to Paris, Brussels and beyond. And there, if you squint hard enough, are the telltale signs of the large numbers of commuter houses, offices and warehouses shoehorned in around Maidstone.
Those who promoted the AONB were clear that the views are as important as the Downs themselves
And yet, and yet. Our first huge vista, from White Horse Wood Country Park, is dominated by green and seems almost continuously wooded, with views to the Greensand Ridge and beyond. Kent’s reputation as the Garden of England is intact—for now.
It’s the stories behind the landscape that reveal the truth, however, and the truth is that the North Downs have, for centuries, been both fought over and fought for. Brandon’s marvellous book, The North Downs, a classic, historical geographer’s text, describes the generations of people who have settled, farmed and exploited the chalk hills, leaving their mark in the flinty stone buildings, lime kilns, oast houses and sheep walks that typify the landscape we love today.
None were so hard on the North Downs than our 20th-century selves, when roads, railways, intensive farming and avalanches of development sought to exploit Kent’s accessibility to London and the Continent.
Much of what we saw from our walk were the places that have been saved—often after exhaustive and exhausting public inquiries —from developers’ repeated attempts to fill in the remaining green gaps between Maidstone and its surrounding roads and railways.
The reason many of those developments were eventually turned down is that the Kent Downs are designated as an AONB. Even this is a story—the process took 10 long years, between 1958 and 1968, because the National Parks Commission and Kent County Council argued about the boundary: whether to draw it wide to protect the setting or narrow to cover only the ‘best’ landscape.
Fifty years on, it’s proving harder and harder to protect landscapes that aren’t designated, yet those who promoted the AONB were clear that the views from the Downs are as important as the Downs themselves. This we find, on our magical walk, is absolutely true.
The up-and-down path hugs the scarp edge, sometimes in dappled woodland, more often with glorious, ever-evolving views south. It’s a constant reminder of how precious and unusual such an experience as this is in crowded southern England. As we descend in golden, late-afternoon light to the charming village of Hollingbourne, sitting snugly on the spring line, I don’t want the walk to end.
Thank goodness for AONBS. They were designated to protect precious landscapes closer to our great cities than the national parks, but our walk has been a reminder that their protection can’t be taken for granted and has had to be won repeatedly.
I’m a member of the review panel chaired by Julian Glover that’s looking at the future of our protected landscapes, the national parks and AONBS. We’d love to hear how well they’re doing and how they could be improved—please tell us what you think (https://consult.defra.gov.uk/land-use/ landscapes-review-call-for-evidence). Fiona’s book ‘The Fight for Beauty’ is out now. She is Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Follow her on twitter: @fionacreynolds