Countryside

Late medieval, possibly earlier, clapper bridge over the river Barle - said to be the longest clapper bridge in Britain. Pleasant walks nearby.  Post code is for the nearby Tarr Steps Inn.

NB Post code is for nearby Tarr Steps Inn.

This part of the North Wessex Downs - a designated AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty) was a busy place in prehistoric times, with ample evidence of human activity since the Neolithic period. White Horse hill features Britain's oldest chalk hillside figures, a spectacular, highly stylised, carving of a gigantic horse believed to be some 3,000 years old. Some think it's not a horse, but a dragon; and below it is Dragon Hill, a natural lump (though it looks man-made) where patch of bare ground on the top is meant to be where St George killed the dragon and spilled its blood. Above the White Horse is Uffington Castle, a simple rectangular Iron Age structure dating from around 700 BC and the highest point in Oxfordshire. Behind it is the Ridgeway, part of an ancient trackway that stretched from Dorset to the Wash, parts of which are still in use.

Unfortunately, it is hard to photograph Uffington's White Horse - except from the air.

There is a National Trust car park nearby and a small disabled pull-in on Dragon Hill Road.

Wolstonbury Hill is a 676 feet (206 metres) high hill on the South Downs, north of Brighton, with spectacular views.  It is a scheduled monument, the site of a late Bronze Age enclosure, or hill fort, and other remains, as well as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) notable for chalk downland flowers, including eleven different types of orchid, and over 30 species of butterflies.  It also has the highest concentration of anthills on the South Downs and the remains of a 20th century rifle range allegedly used during World War Two.  What more could you ask?

There is evidence that hilltop was also used during the Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods.

Extensive damage was caused during flint digging in the 18th and 19th centuries when, allegedly, some skeletons were unearthed.  Other remains – animal bones, pottery and worked flint – were dug up in the 1920s.  Overall, there seems to be a great deal of uncertainty about what, exactly, went on on Wolstonbury Hill.

There is some traditional association with nearby Danny House, a nearby Elizabethan mansion (not open to the public).  During WW1, Lloyd George stayed at the house and is said to have mislaid some secret papers while walking on the hill.  During the Second World War, the area was used by Canadian troops training for D-Day.

Access to Wolstonbury Hill is by footpath from various points – as identified on the OS map.  Post Code is for Pyecombe, from which there is a bridleway leading almost to the top.