Benfield Hill Local Nature Reserve

Like the rest of the South Downs, Benfield Hill was used for sheep farming for 6000 years. The result was the creation of a hugely biodiverse chalk grassland, which biologist call a rainforest in miniature because of the forty or so different flowers that can be found in a square metre. Unfortunately, since the second world war most areas of the Downs are now intensively farmed and the rich wildlife these areas once supported has now gone. However, unlike other areas, the rich, grazed, biodiverse chalk grassland of Benfield Hill has been maintained by the Benfield Wildlife and Conservation group, which was set up in 1991. Benfield Hill was designated as a Local Nature Reserve in 1993 as a…