Description:

80 hectares of chalk downland, mainly species-diverse, ancient semi-natural grassland with marginal woodland, scattered scrub and hedgerow. A

The reserve lies on a south-facing slope and has an immensely rich diversity of chalk flowers and insects: notably orchids such as burnt-tip, early spider, twayblade, fragrant, pyramidal, bee and autumn lady's-tresses. There are also other chalk plants like chalk milkwort, dyer's greenweed, cowslip, dropwort, yellow-wort, carline thistle and autumn gentian.

The rich diversity of wild flowers supports a correspondingly high diversity of insects, with many butterflies such as common, Adonis and chalkhill blues, silver-spotted skipper and marbled white, and a number of grasshoppers and bush-crickets including the largest British species, the great green bush-cricket. The wart-biter bush-cricket was re-introduced to the site in 1993 and there is now a small but well established colony.

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