Wilder Kent Blog

Update from Nina Jones, protected warden for Sandwich & Pegwell Bay.

Margery Thomas describes another delightful May in Hothfield Heathland where volunteers conducted an amphibian torchlight survey on a number of Hothfield ponds. To learn what they found, read on!

How do you restore a chalk downland? Our appeal to purchase an extension to our existing Polhill Bank nature reserve offers us a unique opportunity to restore an additional 26 acres of arable land into a rare and biodiverse habitat in Sevenoaks, Kent. But how do we achieve this goal? Here are our plans.

Our work at Polhill Bank has been ongoing for several years now. Over time, we have purchased more neighbouring patches of land there, adding up to around 16 hectares now under our nature-positive management. In many ways, our wilding journey in the area goes back more than a decade; in others, it’s only just begun.

The writer H E Bates moved from Northamptonshire to Little Chart Forstal in 1931. His deep knowledge of the countryside coloured all his writing. In ‘Through the Woods’ (1936), with fine wood engravings by Agnes Miller Parker, he wrote in loving detail about the plant and animal life in Coldham Wood, which lies due west of the Extension section of Hothfield Heathland.

Margery Thomas, volunteer at Hothfield Heathlands, gives us an update from the reserve, where the first signs of spring are stirring!

As the cold snap of winter rolls in across the country, our grazing animals showcase a diverse array of adaptations, evolved over time to contend with plummeting temperatures and the reduction in leafy vegetation cover across Kent’s nature reserves.

We humans have a habit of thinking in terms of opposition: there’s rain or shine, hot or cold, and land or sea – to name but a few. Salt marshes, however, are something in between.