GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

Beacon Hill access land, near Heddington

The viewpoint is the Mid Wilts Way along its diversion around Oliver's Castle. Seen here is some of the unimproved chalk grassland for which Wiltshire is famous - more than half of Britain's such land is in the County. The area is held within Netherstreet Farm. In the years after the 1950s agricultural production was focused on cereal production and cattle and sheep disappeared from the area leading to the cultivation of the lower reaches of the hill. The steepness of the remaining downland meant that it stayed free of such attention. The absence of livestock in turn allowed longer grasses to grow together with taller plants such as knapweed, devil's bit scabious and the rare round-headed rampion. In parts where the grass remained shorter because of thinner soils wild plants including horseshoe vetch, wild thyme and bird's-foot trefoil can be found together with several types of orchid. The diversity of flora allows for a number of butterfly species to flourish such as the common blue, chalk hill blue, marbled white, green hairstreak and the rare adonis blue. In recent years livestock has been returned to former arable land as part of a government-funded scheme to retain and stabilise the bio-diversity of the area.