Cadland Manor
Lepe Country Park is a popular venue for visitors wishing to go for a stroll on a fine day or for beachcombing or just to eat lunch in the car whilst enjoying the scenery. The countryside does not end at the boundary of the park though but continues on to the surrounding private land; much of which is inaccessible to visitors. All is not lost however when Natural England combined with Environmental Stewardship come to the rescue.
Natural England is a public body that brings together English Nature, The Countryside Agency and Rural development service. Its aims are to conserve wildlife, maintain landscape quality, protect historic environment, protect natural resources and most important for us to promote public access. Environmental Stewardship is an agri-environment scheme run by the department for the environment and provides three schemes to assist land management. These are entry level stewardship, organic entry level stewardship and higher level stewardship. Cadland Manor subscribes to the higher level stewardship which means that it receives subsidies per hectare and for specific land management schemes. In return it agrees to abide by the aims of Natural England which for us means allowing some public access.
So it was that on a fine morning in the middle of March we were welcomed by our guide, and a Mediterranean Gull, to the estate of Cadland Manor and the coastline to the east of Lepe that visitors don’t normally see. Unfortunately the previous week had seen a great deal of rain and some of the paths were underwater to such an extent that it restricted our route through the estate. Spring is also late this year and the brown winter coat still covers much of the countryside. There are some signs of spring to show that it will win in the end such as the hazel catkins which have been producing pollen for a while now and you can spend some time looking for the small red flowers on the end of the buds.
Bluebell leaves cover much of the inland pathways so that it is difficult to avoid treading on them and the glossy green leaves of lesser celandine promise golden yellow flowers in the coming days. A few primroses are already in flower and the blue flowers of ground ivy are a welcome sight in the brown earth. The drier areas near the coast encourage Gorse to grow and they are spotted with yellow flowers at the moment.
We were lucky to see a slow worm trying to warm up on the pathway and an adder was spotted later in the day as it slunk away beneath the gorse. A group of forest ponies provided to keep down the vegetation were seen and a white mare had just given birth the previous night to a black foal with a white flash on its head. A single female Roe deer was disturbed as we moved noisily through the woods. Some of the trees growing in the poor soils and shingle struggle to grow properly and one oak tree appeared to be missing its trunk as its branches grew horizontally along the ground. Apparently this is a good spot to view purple hairstreak butterflies that normally live high up in the oak canopy.
Shingle forms much of the coastline in this area and provides good exercise for walkers. It also provides a good habitat for rare and unusual plants. Little robin which is named after ragged robin but is related to Herb Robert was producing leaves along much of the shore but was not yet in flower. Although on the surface shingle forms a clear coastline both the salty sea water and the fresh ground water can penetrate below ground so the separation is determined by the height of the water table. A low water table lets more seawater penetrate in to the streams and lagoons behind the shore making the water brackish and difficult for some plants to grow. The shingle has on the other hand formed a barrier across an area known as Jugglers Moor preventing sea water from flooding the low lying area and disrupting water flows on the landward side that previously drove the Stanswood Mill.
We had to return back along the shingle beach because of the flooded paths so a circular route was impossible. Nevertheless we had a worthwhile and interesting walk and are grateful for all the assistance provided by the estate of Cadland Manor.