Hello and welcome to the National Trust podcast. I'm Kate Martin lead Ranger for Formby in Central Lancashire. And once again, I'm leaving the familiar surrounds of the northwest and heading down South. This time, I'm in Hampshire where I'll be exploring an unassuming patch of woods and short grassland that's full of wildlife and history. But it's after dark when this place really comes to life with nocturnal activity that could make the unsuspecting evening rambler blush.
I've just left the Cathedral City Of Winchester, which could be considered the gateway to the South Downs National Park. Now, it covers 628 square miles and with its rolling hills, glorious heathland and long distance walking paths. The South downs is a paradise for amblers, ramblers and walkers alike. But that's all to the east of Winchester... So why am I heading west to a tiny triangular patch of land that's sandwiched between two busy roads.
Well, I'll be meeting area ranger Cat Hadler who tells me that if I keep an open mind, this local nature spot may offer me an unexpected experience. And here we are, we've just arrived. Right then, busy road. Wonder why I've been brought to what sounds like the M6. Let's go and have a look and see what this sign says. So according to this sign, I'm in the lower car park of a place called Stockbridge Down. Cat's asked me to meet her at the Down's highest point.
There's a path right ahead of me going through the woods. So I'm assuming we just go through there and keep on going till we meet Cat! Just looking, I can hear the chirr-up of grasshoppers. And it's funny, I'm only about minutes walk away from the car park and I can't hear the traffic at all. It's amazing actually how nature can do that can just sort of take you away from one place to another in almost an instant. Oh, wow!
And I just walking out into a lovely little woodland glade, beautiful, surrounded by a mixture of Blackthorn and Hazel creeping up through. You can see the colour of the rocks below and of course, the bright white here because we're on chalk. I see someone standing in front of me and I'm hoping that this is Cat? Hello, Cat!
Hiya!
It's a hell of a slog up here, but what a view!
Yeah, it's worth it.
It is worth it!
It's pretty much 360 when you're right on the top. So in times gone past, this would have been of huge significance, this area as a go between. You've got the ancient capital of Wessex over in Winchester, you've got the cathedral city of Salisbury and with the River Test lying between them down in the valley, this is the highest point. So they probably would have used this to cross over and head between the two ancient cities on pilgrimage, trade routes, all sorts of things.
Standing on top of this series of hummocks, which essentially is just a steep bank with a ditch in between. So you've got sort of- the one we're standing on here is really quite steep. And this is very, very typical of a iron age hill fort.
The steepest ramp is kind of the main hill fort and on top of it would be the encampment and then you go down into the moat.
So Cat, how old do we think this hill fort is?
Well, it's iron age. So it's about 1000 years BC.
So if we're thinking about a hill fort in the iron age, we wouldn't be thinking about like a medieval walled city like York with stone walls. What we're talking about is the use of the hill and the moving of the earth sometimes to build extra ditches as we have at Woolbury Ring. Also to build up a, a kind of escarpment at the top. I'm Ryan Lavelle and I'm professor of early medieval history at Winchester University.
The advantages of being in such an elevated position would be to be able to see the countryside around, to show ownership of the countryside around, to show some sense of control of that landscape. These were farming communities, places where extended families might live and where their animals might be kept and where food could be gathered and protected as well. It's a place that may provide some refuge, some protection and some status.
Walking on top of the bank here. Obviously, the path beneath us is very chalky.
It can look quite unremarkable to the untrained eye because it could be a lot bleaker, especially in autumn and winter. It's- the grassland is much shorter. It's a lot more open. There's less shelter.
Is this what you brought me here to see?
There's more interesting stuff going on below the surface! So I thought you're here to see things that lie beneath.
Oh, I'm intrigued! So, come on, tell me the story. What is it that's here?
So, about five or six years ago, this little tiny black segmented thing wobbled across the path in front of me and it looked a little bit like a ladybird larvae. So it's like a kind of extended wood louse in segments but thinner and blacker and with little orange markings. And then I went away and looked it up and in the end I found it was a Glow-Worm larvae.
Glow-Worms! That's pretty fascinating. I didn't think we had Glow-Worms in the UK?!
Yeah, I think a lot of people confuse them with Fireflies, which we don't have in the UK. But Glow-Worms we do very much have. So both fireflies and Glow-Worms are creatures that use bioluminescence to communicate and attract each other. But fireflies will do it flying around. Whereas Glow-Worms will only do it on the ground or they'll climb up a bit of vegetation and basically waggle their green bums from there and then they'll glow better on moonless nights.
Tonight is a new moon, which is why I've brought you here because we're doing our second survey of the year that we'd like you to join in on. Looking at my watch- It's about 8:30pm now. Volunteers are due on site about 10pm. So if we just walk across to the car park and we'll start setting up!
Sounds great!
So I'll just get the maps out of my van and then I'll show you how we do the survey.
Great!
So I've got three aerial photos here of Stockbridge Down. And on each one, it's got a different route drawn and essentially you're walking sort of all spread out in a line. So you all got your eyes on the ground, kind of like a police crime scene looking for evidence.
So apart from a sharp pair of eyes, is there anything else we need?
Just to give focus and a bit of a hint of competition.
So it gets quite competitive does it?
Yeah, it does. And speaking of competitive, some of the volunteers are arriving and it's only quarter past nine.
Hello, I'm Kate!
Hello!
So this is my first time on a Glow-Worm survey. What about you?
No, I've been doing it for probably about four or five years since we started. It takes you a while to see your first one and once you get it, it's like-
So is there quite a bit of competition then between the groups when you go out?
There would be if Dylan was here! He's a lead ranger. Yes, he's very competitive when it comes to it!
I don't know, maybe it's something about lead rangers. Maybe we're all competitive. I'm quite competitive!
I'm sure you will see some
Oh Good. I hope so!
I hope I see some!
Right everyone! Should we go? So we'll cross the road and then, yeah, we'll go off on our different groups. Everyone know who they're with? Wonderful! Oh, I'm excited! I am excited! It's going to happen! We're going to find lots! So for the best chance for us to see them-
Yeah-
It's best if we spread out. So if you just go over there between Scott and Mary and kind of hold the line there-
Yeah!
That'd be perfect. Mary! Oh, yeah, here she is! Wonderful!
I have to say it's a lot harder than I thought it would be!
But it does help having seen them before to know what you're looking for!
Well fingers crossed. I'm hoping that we might get an idea. So, I mean, you obviously must enjoy it otherwise you wouldn't be getting up [cross-talk]
I don't often come out here in the middle of the night.
That's good to know, otherwise I'd be asking some questions! Thank you, Mary. It was nice to talk to you and let me know if you see one. I'm desperate to see one! Hello, Scott. Where are you?
I'm here! You've been up here before last time?
No, no, this is my first!
This is my second. We- I came on the first one a couple of months back when, sadly, we couldn't find anything. But that's, that's life. It's a funny old year. But we want to find the glowing bottoms which will make it worth it.
So, what made you want to get involved with it?
Yeah, it is a fantastic environment to work in great company with the guys that I work with. And there's so much to do.
Oh, we got one!
Oh, joyous! Oh, well done! Good Lord, I can't even see it! Well done! Mary your eyes! Gosh, you have a superhuman vision! Look at her! That might be a larvae. Well, it is eating a snail. I think you found a larvae because they glow very faintly.
Nice one!
Look. That is the first larvae I've ever picked up on a survey!
Oh, wow. That's incredible.
Curiously, the larvae actually do glow of their own accord. And we believe that the reason they glow is to try and deter predators from eating them. I'm Robin Scargell. I run the UK Glow-Worm survey. There's nothing more delightful than walking along a lane in the summer and seeing these little sparks of light which are female Glow-Worms hopefully waiting for a male to turn up. If you're a tiny beetle and you're around in the
countryside. How do you make friends? How do you get to meet another person? Another similarly minded Glow-Worm? Well, it's bad enough for humans but it's even more difficult for tiny little beetles in the landscape. Now, some beetles use pheromones. They have a distinctive smell and the males can pick that up over a long distance. In the case of Glow-Worms, they use light.
I would say it's a bit like people going to a dance or a nightclub or whatever the females put on their best and most attractive clothing and look as gorgeous as possible. And the males sort of shuffle in, look around for this little speck of light in the grass. And so it is with Glow-Worms, the females actually light up their lights and they can be seen from a long distance.
It's all about mating. She may last only a day or so as an adult and then she lays her eggs and then more or less within a few hours, she may well be dead.
So now that I know what I'm looking for, I am keeping my eyes peeled. But, it's actually quite tricky. It's quite tricky trying just to watch what you put in your feet, never mind anything else. But sort of walking across here with sort of disembodied voices and silhouettes in the distance it's a- It is quite eerie, particularly when you think about, you know, how long people have lived up here. You can imagine the sort of ghosts of our ancestors following our every footstep.
That's quite scary really!
As far back as 2400 BC at the dawn of the Bronze Age, this was a place for burial mounds. Those people who were buried, there were seen as important enough to have these mounds erected as a kind of memorial to them. Fast forward to the 1060s AD this time, it's not used as a place to honour the deceased, Stockbridge Down for Anglo Saxon Society was used as a place to warn the living. I'm Ryan Lavelle and I'm professor of early medieval history at Winchester University.
So executions that we know of from this period tend to be by hanging or sometimes by beheading. There's evidence from Stockbridge Down that some of these skeletons had had their hands bound together behind their backs. So evidently they were treated as prisoners, heads were placed on stakes in public places so that they could be seen. And this was a way of reminding people to behave.
You can imagine the people who are traveling along the Stockbridge road looking up at the hill and shuddering slightly as they see these heads looking down on them. Going to a place like this after dark would be something that would best be avoided.
There is something isn't there about being in a place where, you know, people have been for thousands of years.
It is. We walk in the footsteps of history here. I always look out at the view and see, you know, ancient man looked out and the view would have been very different, but the shape of the landscape would have been largely the same.
Oh, is this one?
Oh, it is one! Hey, Kate's found one! Oh, look!
Oh, so I'm so chuffed! So chuffed!
Good, isn't it?
I don't feel completely useless!
Yeah. Yeah, I just walked right past it. [Cross-talk as volunteers arrive]
There's one in there as well!
Which one are you looking at Scott?
Well I've got one here into the bushes.
So-
There's one that side!
There's one here, there's one there, [Cross-talk] You've got one! Oh good Lord. This is wonderful!
Right, let me get- Is there one over there as well?
Yeah, we got it! There it is. I can see it now, dead ahead! Right, Ok. Hold on. Sorry, Kate. We will finish this conversation! Oh my God. Now, I can't see. Oh, yes. There's one in there and there's one down there. Excellent. Oh, wonderful! Cool! We'll just keep walking up in the line straight up to the car park. Come on, guys, we can get one more before we get back! [ Cheering] I said we had to have one more before we went home! I would have kept you all here!
Gosh, I can see her! She's quite a biggie! Ah, excellent work. Right. Let's get back to the car park and see how everyone's got on. Right, where is everyone? What's our result? Right. How did you guys do? Tell us!
We did really well, thank you!
Oh, good, good. What have you got?
15 females and 7 males.
Fantastic. Oh, very close. We've got 18 females, 7 males and a larvae eating a snail spotted by Mary, which I have never seen before. Oh, well done guys!
Is that a draw in reality? [Cross-talk]
Yeah. Well, there was a particular cluster on a corner which will forever be kind of the peak busy corner in the green light district in my head now. Oh, well, thank you very much everyone and thank you for hanging around to hear results. I appreciate it's getting on now. We'll all be turning to pumpkins soon! Yeah. Thank you very much. Everyone's signed in and out. So yeah, please feel free to leave as you wish and get yourselves to bed. Thanks guys. Thank you. See you later, Mike.
It was a really good experience. I mean, surveying a new species for me is always spectacular.
Oh, thank you. Thanks for coming. It was lovely to meet you real joy.
So, the volunteers have all gone Cat's left and I'm all alone on this lonely little bit of chalk grassland. But actually, it's really magical place to be at this time of night. It's so rare that you actually get to be alone in a place like this. You know, I've got open sky above me. All the stars are twinkling. It's just beautiful. Quite often it can be these little local areas that can be the most magical.
Learn about it. Research about your local places because you can get a fantastic wildlife experience in the most unassuming quiet places. Thanks for listening to this episode of the National Trust podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, remember, the National Trust has a huge resource of audio programmes to keep you informed and entertained. You can find all the podcasts on our network at nationalturst.org.uk/podcasts. We'll be back soon with a new episode, but for now from me,
Kate Martin. Goodbye.