The most well-known part of the SSSI, usually known as "Wye Downs," is a stretch of chalk downland and woodland located on the North Downs near the village of Wye. The site is a national nature reserve (NNR) owned and managed by Natural England, and comprises a chalk escarpment dissected by several coombes, which were formed by frost weathering in the period following the last ice age.[11][12] The most spectacular coombe is known as the Devil's Kneading Trough.
The field containing Wye Crown is also within the NNR but is privately owned. Originally the Crown was carved in the chalk but is now made of white-painted stone gabions.
Crundale is a valley situated a few kilometers north of Wye Downs, the main part of which is Winchcombe Down, another chalk escarpment, owned and managed by Natural England, although it is not publicly accessible except along the North Downs Way footpath.
Wildlife
The sites have a variety of habitats, including grassland, calcareous fen meadow, scrub, dry woodland on chalk and wet alder woodland.[citation needed]
There are two public car parks at the top of Wye Downs, along Coldharbour Lane. They are free to use, but a donation is requested (to be paid by mobile phone app). Marked trails extend around Pickersdane Scrubs and Broad Downs, including the Devil's Kneading Trough. The rest of Wye Downs is open to the public, but there are few formal paths.
Crown Field has is a popular view point and can be accessed via a public footpath from Coldharbour Lane.
In popular culture
Author Russell Hoban repurposed The Devil's Kneading Trough as "Mr Clevvers Roaling Place" in his 1980, post apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker. Withersdane became "Widders Dump"; Wye, "How"; Pet Street, "Pig Sweet", and the Crundale Downs themselves, "Bundel Downs".[13][14][15]
↑"Wye & Crundale Downs". Special Areas of Conservation. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
↑Ratcliffe, Derek, ed. (1977). A Nature Conservation Review. Vol.2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp.115–16. ISBN0521 21403 3.
↑"Wye Downs". Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
↑Kerney, M. P.; Brown, E. H.; Chandler, T. J. (1964). "The Late-glacial and Post-glacial history of the Chalk Escarpment near Brook, Kent". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 248: 135–204. doi:10.1098/rstb.1964.0010.
