All posts by Luke Geoghegan

Capability Brown in the South Downs

August 16th, 2016

Portrait of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, c.1770-75, by Richard Cosway (17421821)/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, baptised on 30 August 1716, was a landscape designer whose style has shaped what we think of today as quintessential English countryside.  At the end of the 1600s most landscaping was rigidly formal reflecting man’s power over nature. ‘Capability’ Brown’s […]

Where to see Perseid meteors in the South Downs

August 11th, 2016

The annual Perseid shower will reach its peak tonight and tomorrow (11 and 12 August) in the South Downs dark night skies. Astronomers estimate that around three or four meteors a minute are expected – twice as many as usual – starting from 10pm tonight and then continuing over the weekend. Visibility is likely to […]

Enjoy Afternoon Tea Week in the South Downs

August 9th, 2016

At half past three, everything stops for tea… Few pastimes are as quintessentially English as afternoon tea but did you know that the tradition only began in the early 19th century? At the time people usually ate just two meals a day, breakfast and dinner later in the evening. It was popularised by the seventh […]

Hidden Past Festival

August 8th, 2016

10am – 4pm, 21 August 2016, Portsmouth City Museum Beneath the wooded countryside of West Sussex and Hampshire lies a forgotten landscape, littered with traces of past communities who lived and worked in the South Downs. For the past three years the Secrets of the High Woods project has been uncovering their stories using cutting […]

Happy National Sisters Day

August 7th, 2016

While you might be celebrating your female siblings, here in the South Downs we’re celebrating some important, but slightly different kind of sisters… One of the iconic images of the South Downs National Park is the rippling wall of chalk stretching to the horizon at the Seven Sisters. These monolithic peaks and dips are the remnants of […]

Celebrate International Beer Day in the South Downs

August 2nd, 2016

The first Friday in August is International Beer Day! Here in the South Downs we have tipples that rival the best in the world so why not embrace the celebration by combining a walk on the Downs with a local brew or two. One of the things that makes the South Downs unique as a National Park […]

Southdown Sheep Society’s 125th Anniversary

August 2nd, 2016

In the ever-changing farming landscape of the South Downs there is one thing that has remained constant across more than two centuries; the presence of the unique Southdown sheep. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Southdown Sheep Society. Southdown sheep have long been favoured for their ability to produce high quality, marbled sweet […]