Access Features - Gates and stiles
Grazing is absolutely necessary to maintain the site's biodiversity. This presence of livestock consequently requires lots of stockproof fences. As it is important that fences do not deter people from enjoying a walk on the hill, a considerable number of gates, stiles and other access points have been installed.
These range from cattle holding-pens with 10-foot field gates, field gates for vehicular access, kissing gates, stiles and squeeze-points.
Unless cattle are actually on the site, the field gates are usually left open, to allow easy pedestrian access.
Kissing Gate
Over 3 (mainly rainy) days in October 2004, a kissing gate was installed on the northern edge of Compartment 6, which is on the hill road above the QA hospital. The gate itself was a cast-off from Portsmouth Parks (hence its unusual colour for the site), and the posts our home-grown holm oak.
Bob admiring the work of a day
Steel kissing gate being repaired
There are many specially made demountable steel kissing gates. They function as a normal kissing gate, but can also be used for livestock access by unlocking and removing the gate.
Holding Pen
With the areas on both sides of Southwick Hill Road now fenced, we need holding pens for moving cattle across the road between them.
For this, we used mainly contractor labour, with bought-in posts.
This task had a number of interesting challenges, from finding the space for the pens on the steeply-sloping land on either side of the road, to detecting a number of buried power-cables before digging holes.
Stronghold fencing contractors were engaged for this pen.
You want us to do WHAT?
Stiles and Squeeze-points
Stiles and Squeeze-points are liberally scattered throughout the fence-lines.