Downs

Downs, rounded and grass-covered hills in southern England that are typically composed of chalk. The name comes from the Old English dūn (“hill”). The main areas of chalk downs lie in Berkshire, Wiltshire, and northern Hampshire, with spurs running eastward into West Sussex, Surrey, and Kent. Chalk hills of similar type are called Wolds in Lincolnshire and in Yorkshire.

Because of the porous nature of chalk, the Downs’ summits are dry in summer, and tree growth is normally slow, even if undisturbed. Regeneration has been prevented by sheep grazing. The Downs were formerly well wooded, but now only scattered woodlands of beech, yew, juniper, and box are found.

The Downs are notable for their evidence of prehistoric occupation, including figures of horses cut out of turf; ridge and scarp-foot trackways that focus on megalithic monuments, such as Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire; innumerable burial mounds or barrows; defensive earthworks; and ring encampments, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset.

The characteristic bare and rounded summits of the Downs, where uncultivated, have a springy turf of fescue grass with a distinctive vegetation, including rare orchids, and fauna of snails and insects. Mechanical plows have now made it possible to cultivate all but the steepest slopes of downs, however, and on many downs crops or manured leas have replaced the turf on which flocks of sheep used to graze.