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The Environment was not a term in everyday use in the 1930's,' said Norman Allcorn who was a young lad born on Lower Bevendean Farm in 1932.
'The nearest in a countryside context would be 'Nature'. My Grandfather, as a farmer, had to work with nature, although all farming to a greater or lesser degree is unnatural and nature is, left to itself, basically untidy.
(As the Vicar said to the Gardener. 'Isn't it wonderful what God can do in a garden'.
'Yes but you should have seen the mess when he had it to himself,' was the apt reply).
Furthermore, what is acceptable farming practice to one person or one generation is not necessarily acceptable to the next.
At Lower Bevendean there was, and still is, a south facing steep bank between Whites Bottom and North Hanger Field. Half of this bank was a beech wood. In some parts of the Country, including West Sussex, trees growing on a steep bank are called a 'hanger' because they seem to hang on the side of the hill.
These trees, however, were called The Shaw. A shaw is much more of an East Sussex term meaning a bank of trees or narrow wood. Perhaps both terms were used on this farm as it is close to the boundary of East and West Sussex.
Beech is a total cover tree. Whereas scrub and brambles can grow under other deciduous trees, nothing grows in the shade of the beech. This makes beech woods good for walking in and also for playing. Myself and the other farm children played and climbed in this wood. Doubtless children from the Bevendean Estate still do, as it now lies between Heath Hill Avenue and Norwich Drive.
The other half of this bank had no trees, only some small thorn bushes and rough grass which had been allowed to turn brown and go to seed. My Grandfather used to carry out occasional controlled burning of this dead grass.
The burnt residue contained potash that enriched the thin chalk soil and fresh green grass grew up from the roots. This provided much better grazing for sheep and cattle. In doing this my Grandfather was only following other farmers who had used this method for thousands of years.
The first prehistoric farmers burnt the vegetation on areas of ground and grew crops for a few years before moving on to another place. This was called 'Slash and Burn' and would not have found favour with some of today's environmentalists.
Neither did my Grandfather's burning find favour with the local naturalists. There was uproar because this bank was said to be the breeding ground of many rare Downland butterflies.
When Barclay Wills visited Bevendean a few years earlier he described it thus....'Butterflies swarm here, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, Small Heaths, Blues and Coppers flew by in quick succession. Silver Y moths fluttered about. The Blues were most numerous....'
Some rare Blues like the Chalk Hill Blue and the Adonis will only breed on a South-facing slope, as was this one. Hence the protests by the 'butterfly buffs' of Brighton!
My Grandfather could not understand what all the fuss was about, which only underlines the conflict between farmers and conservationists.
Barclay Wills also describes...'A great mass of scarlet, a field of poppies with the sunlight on it.'.... I too remember the fields of poppies.
Selective weed killers have removed the poppies and other wild flowers from today's cornfields and in the process have done more to destroy the butterflies and other wildlife than the burning of one small area of grass. Both would, however, be called in today's terminology.... 'Environmentally Unfriendly'.'
Barclay Wills, born1877, was a Worthing grocer with a passion for the Downs. He loved to escape to the hills and wrote about the wildlife, the sheep and especially his friends the Shepherds. He died in 1926.
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