Important News
This website will cease to operate after about the middle of July 2009.
There is a much more modest replacement, provided free by Hampshire County Council, at http://www.portsdown.hampshire.org.uk
All the images on this site have been stored for future use.
Portsdown Hill:
its wildlife and conservation
Portsdown Hill is a ridge of chalk that lies to the north of Portsmouth Harbour on the South Coast of England. The north face of the hill is farmland, while much of the south is a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) due to its remaining chalk grassland habitat. This website describes the SSSI and other open space that is managed by the staff and volunteers of the Portsdown Hill Countryside Service. The fantastic array of wildlife and the efforts to bring Portsdown back into a favourable condition are related with the hope it encourages everyone to appreciate the Hill for the fantastic resource it is.
There are other areas on nature conservation interest on the Hill, including SINCs (Sites of Interest for Nature Conservation). A variety of landowners and agencies own and manage the rest of the hill including the MoD, local authorities and utility companies. Within these ownerships, fragments of the once widespread chalk downland habitat remain.
Until the 1950's, the south face of hill was regularly grazed, producing a grassland dominated landscape in which patches of scrub would have expanded and contracted as grazing pressure increased and decreased over the decades. Since this agricultural grazing stopped, minimal management was practised and the scrub rapidly took over. The south face of the hill is now a patchwork of chalk-quarries, woodland, scrub, and grassland.
Since 1994, a concerted effort has been made to expand the grassland to its earlier dominance. A grazing programme was initiated which has required much fence-building, as well as scrub clearance, by both hand and machinery.
Emerging Flowers
Amongst many others, look out for Yellow Rattle, a hemi-parasite. It taps into grass roots to obtain some of its nutriment, reducing the growth rate of the grass. Also coming out is Common Gromwell, which will develop hard white nut-like seeds. Much less common on the hill in Early Gentian, with only a few specimens.
Holm Oak
Is it good for anything? Read the sorry story of its use for fence posts .
About this website
The following conventions have been used on this site:
- Thumbnail images with a thick green border can be expanded to full size by clicking the image
- Images with a black border do not expand, however much you click them
- Some of the images, especially those of flora and fauna, have the photographer's name embedded such that when you hover the mouse pointer over the image, their name will appear. Other images were taken by Hilma Miles.
- Text that appears like this may be have a definition or acronym expansion 'behind', or be a question. The additional information appears when you hover your mouse pointer over the text.
This website was created and maintained by Hilma Miles, who died
in her sleep while on holiday trekking in the Himalayan foothills
of Bhutan. It is now maintained by the Friends of Portsdown Hill,
with assistance from Portsmouth City Council's Portsdown Hill
Countryside Officer, who manages the part of the hill within the
city boundary.
For comments or contributions to this web site, e-mail: Alan Thurbon (mail@portsdown.org)
For matters relating to management of the hill, e-mail:
Richard Jones,
telephone 023 9238 9623 or write to :
Richard Jones MIEEM, Portsdown Hill Countryside Officer,
Portsdown Hill Countryside Service, Fort Widley, Portsdown Hill
Road, Portsmouth, PO6 3LS
See Hilma's website for a wide variety of topics. An obituary was published in the Southampton Daily Echo on 6th December 2008.
RIP Hilma Miles 1961-2007