Friday 3 August 2012

PHOTOGRAPHS: HIDDEN HINDHEAD II



View of Blackdown from Hindhead Common; Heathland on Hindhead Common.


Within the Devil’s Punchbowl area there is a section of hills and valleys known as ‘Hindhead Common’.  At the bottom of the valleys it joins with Polecat Lane on one side and Bunch Lane as you look towards Blackdown.  At the top of the hills the paths lead to the triangulation point known as ‘Gibbet Hill’ marking one of the highest views in South East England, from which the South Downs and parts of Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire can be seen.  The River Wey, which runs through Bunch Lane, draws its waters from the surrounding hills.


With its steep sides, the Devil's Punch Bowl has become a natural nature reserve, filled with heathland, streams and woodland.


The soil in this part of Surrey has two layers — an upper layer of sandstone, with clay beneath. This deep depression is believed to be the result of erosion caused by spring water beneath the sandstone, causing the upper level to collapse. 
The Devil's Punch Bowl is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.  It has abundant wildlife. Most woodland species can be seen easily - including Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Redstart.

Below:
Top of Gibbet Hill; Inside the Devil's Punch Bowl; View from Gibbet Hill.



Hindhead common has many hidden trails which present even regular walkers with unexpected discoveries - easily passed by unless you have time to stop and explore off the beaten track.

Gibbet Hill, at Hindhead, Surrey, is a hill above the Devil's Punch Bowl. It is the second highest point in Surrey after Leith Hill.  Gibbet Hill stands 272 metres (892 ft) above sea level. It commands a panoramic view, especially to the north and east. 


The view to the north overlooks the Devil's Punchbowl, Thursley, Hankley Common, Crooksbury Hill, and the Hog's Back towards Godalming and Guildford. To the east lies the Sussex Weald. To the south, the hills of Haslemere and Blackdown can be seen, with some sections of the South Downs.  

On the summit of Gibbet Hill stands a Celtic cross that was erected there in the 19th century which commemorates the death of a sailor in the 18th century. Gibbet Hill and the nearby area were mentioned by Dickens in Nicholas Nickleby, in the scene where Nickleby was walking from London to Portsmouth:
‘They walked upon the rim of the Devil's Punch Bowl; and Smike listened with greedy interest as Nicholas read the inscription upon the stone which, reared upon that wild spot, tells of a murder committed there by night. 


The grass on which they stood, had once been dyed with gore; and the blood of the murdered man had run down, drop by drop, into the hollow which gives the place its name. 


'The Devil's Bowl,' thought Nicholas, as  he looked into the void, 'never held fitter liquor than that!'





Dickens was referring to the murder on 24 September 1786 of an Unknown Sailor who was met by three men in the Red Lion at Thursley as he was travelling to his ship in Portsmouth. He bought them drinks and they then followed him and murdered him in the Devil's Punch Bowl. 




They were quickly apprehended at the Sun Inn in Rake, West Sussex, tried and executed, and their bodies hung on Gibbet Hill.


The unknown sailor was buried in Thursley churchyard and a memorial stone was erected on Gibbet Hill near the scene of the crime. In 2000, Peter Moorey suggested that the sailor was an Edward Hardman.


The heathland around Hindhead was grazed for centuries by domestic livestock, but from the 19th Century, grazing declined and eventually it disappeared entirely. In 1991, the National Trust introduced New Forest ponies to 10 hectares of the Devil’s Punch Bowl.

Over the following years the grazed area was increased to about 250 hectares with cattle grazing in the summer and ponies throughout the year.


Re-instating grazing has brought back a missing part of the centuries-old management of these commons; it has also brought benefits to the heathland and its wildlife. Light grazing and trampling by animals, in contrast to mechanical cutting,  can promote wildlife diversity. It helps to control grasses, allowing other plants to compete, producing a mix of short and tall vegetation and bare ground – something impossible to do in other ways, and of immense value to heathland wildlife.



Sources: 
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbet_Hill%2C_Hindhead
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Punch_Bowl
'Grazing on Hindhead Common and the Devil’s Punch Bowl - A background paper', produced by the National Trust:
www.www.footprint-ecology.co.uk