Firstly, we’d like to thank all of you who’ve been in touch with us to offer your support, show interest in what we are hoping to do, and to ask questions. We’ve been really encouraged by your interest and will be holding an Open Day at Old Down Community Hall on Sunday 16^th March from 9.00am to 4.00pm.  No need to book, just come along to say hello and have a chat with members of the group to find out what we’re about, what we hope to do on the land and see if there are any ways that you might like to get involved in some of our projects. We’d particularly love to talk to you if you are a user of the Old Down land – whether walkers, runners, cyclists, dog-walkers or you just enjoy the woodland and the lovely views across the open spaces. Do drop by to meet us and hear what Old Down could be like when the land is regenerated to chalk downland.

As you will imagine, there are lots of practical things that need to be done to start to take the land to chalk downland. One of these is to remove the tree guards that are on the trees which were planted a few years ago. If we don’t do this, the trees will be weaker and more easily damaged in the future. We are going to hold two Tree Guard Removal Sundays, starting at 1.00pm each day. The dates are 17^th February and 9^th March. The more people that can help, the easier the task will be – and the more sociable it will be too! Please come along and make a difference to the trees that are becoming damaged by the guards. If you’d like to help, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it at least 2 days before the events.

Do you have these skills? We want to do as much as possible to communicate  and involve everyone in what we’re doing and what’s happening on Old Down. To do this really effectively we need more skills and we’d love to hear from you if you could offer help for a few hours a month:

• Publishing an e-newsletter – you don’t have to write the articles, we need someone who can design and put them together as a newsletter – maybe you’re a student and this could be part of your course-work?

• Secretarial skills – can you take minutes, administer our membership database and email our volunteers?

• First Aider – we hope we don’t need you (!!) but we have to have first aid cover at our field events
• Event planning – are you a good organiser who enjoys planning and administering events such as nature walks, open days, practical acrtivities?

• Local Historian – we’d love to show how Old Down and Kempshott have changed over the years, and what life would have been like in past times – do you have that knowledge? Can you help us put together an historical trail for Old Down?

• Free during the day for practical projects – it would be great to maximise what we can do by using weekdays as well as weekends, so if you’re free and would enjoy doing practical work on the land occasionally please do let us know!

For more information, please contact Paul Beevers, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   Cathy Mitchell-Reid This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or  Dee Hughes This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or Debbie Sampson at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

(article supplied by Kempshott Kourier) 

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