How we manage Farthing Downs

Managing Farthing Downs 

Farthing Downs is a 95-hectare area of public open space owned and managed by the City of London Corporation. It is a historic downland, home to an extensive chalk grassland habitat. Its natural and cultural heritage are of national importance, the legacy of centuries of interaction between people and the environment. Farthing Downs is part of a wider Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) owing to its community of nationally-rare greater yellow-rattle and a designated National Nature Reserve due to the abundance of wildflowers and rare invertebrates associated with semi-natural downland habitats. Farthing Downs is also a Scheduled Monument that includes an Iron Age field system, associated trackway and Anglo Saxon burial mounds. 

As we progress through the 2020's and beyond, the challenge of protecting this valuable resource will increase as pressures from environmental and human factors mount. To meet this challenge we have adopted a 10-year Plan to explain how we will manage Farthing Downs to protect and enhance it for wildlife, people and landscape.

The Plan covers everything from the management of nationally important chalk grasslands and specialist species, to improving our conservation and interpretation of the reserves heritage features, how we wish to work with our local community, partner organisations and volunteer groups, provide educational opportunities, improve our visitor provision and much more. You can read more about how we hope to achieve this in the Plan below.

Farthing Downs Management Plan 2021-2031