With an attendance of around 70 members Ferring Conservation Group welcomed Dr Geoffrey Mead to their October meeting (his second visit to the Group), this time to give a talk entitled ‘Sussex Landscapes’.

Dr Mead is an Associate Tutor with the Geography team at the University of Sussex. He specialises in the landscapes of SE England in both urban and rural areas. He did his doctorate in the suburban growth of the interwar period and is passionate about the Sussex landscape.

With illustrations and many photographs Dr Mead began by explaining that humans have greatly influenced the way our present landscape looks today and many post-industrial areas, although manmade, now have a natural appearance.

The oldest rock formations are found in the High Weald in the form of the Purbeck beds which were formed 140 million years ago. The High Weald gives way to the Low Weald which runs down to the Coastal Plain where the youngest rocks can be found and Newhaven beach is the only place layers of chalk can be viewed in the rock profile. Each area has its own soil type, distinctive landscape and vegetation which influenced the building materials used, from Purbeck stone in the High Weald to sandstone around the Ashdown Forest and Tonbridge Wells. Where there were large deposits of clay it provided suitable material for the production of bricks and tiles, also in addition around Horsham, stone was found in the form of slabs and this was extensively used for roofing in and around the town.

The South Downs provided an endless supply of chalk which was quarried and turned into cement. Gypsum was also produced from the chalk and used to produce plaster and other products. Nodules of flint were formed millions of years ago during the time when the chalk, produced from the remains of trillions of sea creatures, was used to construct many buildings and walls in villages on the South Downs. The Coastal Plain contains the youngest rocks and the soil is mostly brickearth, a grade 1 farming soil.

Nature Notes delivered by Graham Tuppen followed a welcome break for tea and an interesting photograph of a Knott Grass caterpillar that had been spotted in Graham’s garden was shown. This common black, white and red caterpillar feeds on a wide variety of herbaceous and are often seen during daylight hours. A Fox Moth caterpillar was also seen but with its brown hairs and shorter dark orange hairs on its upper surface was far less attractive in comparison. As in the past few years Graham kindly cleaned out the nest boxes that graced many trees throughout Ferring. Unfortunately a few contained dead chicks and eggs but interestingly one nest was found to contain yellow fluff from a tennis ball showing the resourcefulness of many birds. Poor Graham suffered many flea bites during this exercise and vowed to wear more protective clothing next year. It has been reported that sadly there are numerous bare areas on the Angmering Park Estate because of the clearance Ash Die Back wood.

Many types of fungi have been seen along the banks of the Rife, including Porcelain Fungus. A Sparrow hawk has been seen along with 21 Brent Geese in the area, and 34 Goldfinches had been counted in Graham’s garden although they had now disappeared. Graham warned that Asian Hornets are in the area and if spotted then for people to immediately contact a local beekeeper via the British Bee Keepers’ Association who are trained to trace and deal with Hornet’s nest.

To conclude the meeting Ed Miller gave news that the proposed detached house to be built in the garden of 1, Sea Drive had been refused by Arun DC.  A planning application to build a bungalow at the back of 1, Ocean Parade has been submitted.  Kingsley’s Coffee shop had applied to have its opening hours extended, plus an alcohol licence on and off the premises. Also Persimmon Homes have been granted leave to appeal the High Court’s decision on Chatsmore Farm also known as the Goring Gap.

A good audience heard a very encouraging presentation on the ‘Weald to the Waves’ project, given by one of its leading lights James Baird. The project is to create a series of green wildlife corridors from the borders of Kent and Surrey to the sea. The main corridor is to run from the Ashdown Forest, near East Grinstead, westward across to Ardingly and Horsham, south through the Knepp estate, towards Steyning and then across towards Bury and south to Climping. James Baird owns and farms the large estate at Climping in a two-mile wide Gap down to the sea.

He said the Knepp Estate was a key partner in this project but their commitment to rewilding was not the only way for landowners and public bodies to be part of the green corridors. He and other farmers would continue to cultivate the land and manage livestock but now with an eye to maintaining habitats for wildlife and allowing small animals to move freely from farm to farm, parkland to the downs and from field to forest, along green corridors.

There would be more corridors in future, largely following the river valleys – the Adur and the Arun, and Ferring could very well be part of one, following the Rife and linking the Gaps either side of Ferring to Highdown, the National Park and the Duke of Norfolk’s estate. Conservation Group members were very impressed with his optimism and commitment – a change from the all-too-frequent hand wringing and despair from Conservation campaigners.

The meeting also had a report on local wildlife sightings, including birds on migration, the Grey Seal that is frequently seen off Ferring beach and a Common Seal filmed right up the Arun near Pulborough. Ed Miller gave an update on planning issues: Chatsmore Farm was now under crops again but the threat of more housing estates in the Gaps had not gone away. And changes to the planning system were soon to be announced which would probably make it even more difficult for residents to object and Councils to refuse applications.

On a warm, sunny evening Sarah Ward, Sussex Wildlife Trust’s (SWT) Living Seas Officer, opened the Group’s July meeting with an informative and interesting, illustrated talk on Living Seas along the Sussex Coast.  This happened to coincide with National Marine Week (spanning 15 days to allow for the variation of tide times) the Nationwide Wildlife Trust’s celebration of all things marine, which aims to promote the engagement of people across the UK with the world of maritime and helps in the understanding of the science behind this important work.

Sarah took members on a whistle-stop tour of the many different environmental features along the Sussex coast and sea. Starting with the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs of East Sussex, which shape the coastline and undersea environment, Sarah explained the importance of the vegetation on the shingle which also supports many animals. Globally it is only the UK, Japan and parts of Australasia that have vegetated shingle beaches that sustain this important habitat.

Marine Protected Areas are another initiative that restrict environmentally-damaging activities in the sea and it is hoped that eventually these areas will form a chain of protected habitats and wildlife. Sarah is a keen diver and highlighted the principle diving sites that provide the very best opportunities for data gathering, including Selsey in West Sussex.

The successful Sussex Kelp Restoration Project has greatly improved the kelp beds since the Sussex Nearshore Trawling Byelaw (March 2021) was introduced. Supported by Sir David Attenborough, this project was a collaboration of national and local organisations including SWT, Blue Marine Foundation, Big Wave Productions, Sussex IFCA, Adur and Worthing Council, University of Brighton and UCL.

Opening the second half of the meeting Graham Tuppen delivered the ever popular Nature Notes session with a beautiful photograph of one of the wildflower beds in the Little Twitten recreation ground. Although pretty blue cornflowers and delicate pink cosmos dominated the bed it was doing an excellent job of attracting bees. On a walk through Ilex Way Graham had spotted a blackbird on a nest in the trunk of a tree presumably incubating her 2^nd or 3^rd clutch of eggs. A black Flatworm with a gold stripe was spotted in Graham’s garden and David Bettiss reported having seen a mature Stag Beetle resting on his driveway. A pretty Comma butterfly was photographed relaxing in a member’s garden and a small Tortoiseshell butterfly was sighted by the banks of the Rife.

Ed Miller took to the floor at the end of the meeting to deliver an update regarding local planning news. He advised members that the planning application for a large modern design house in Grange Park had, at least for the time being, been withdrawn. Decisions on the appeals for the housing estates proposed for Roundstone Farm and Rustington Golf Course were still to be concluded and the hearing at the High Court regarding the Persimmon Homes estate on the Chatsmore Farm land had taken place and a decision was imminent. An inappropriate 20 metre high mobile phone mast, initially proposed for Greystoke Road, will hopefully be sited somewhere less conspicuous.