Preston Hill Country Park is in Eynsford, in Kent, England. It is a woodland and former military firing range.
Eynsford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 4.5 miles south east of Swanley.
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west. The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. The county town is Maidstone.
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| Preston Hill Country Park | |
|---|---|
 Bench on Preston Hill | |
| Coordinates | 51°20′57″N0°11′41″E / 51.3493°N 0.1948°E Coordinates: 51°20′57″N0°11′41″E / 51.3493°N 0.1948°E |
| Area | 232 acres (940,000 m2) |
| Created | 1991 |
| Operated by | Kent County Council, |
| Status | Open 7 days a week, dawn until dusk |
Within the site of the park and woodland, stood Preston Hill farmhouse. This was then damaged in 1944 after a 1000 kg parachute bomb or mine was dropped, in the early hours of 22 January 1944. Three of the farmhouse occupants were killed and 8 others were injured, later the ruined farmhouse was demolished. The site was then used as a Ministry of Defence firing range (up to the 1940s); the remnants of the range can still be seen. [1]
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong fabric, originally silk, now most commonly nylon. They are typically dome-shaped, but vary, with rectangles, inverted domes, and others found. A variety of loads are attached to parachutes, including people, food, equipment, space capsules, and bombs.
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress, the impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects. Bombs have been utilized since the 11th century starting in East Asia.
The Ministry of Defence is the British government department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by Her Majesty's Government and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces.
Since 1951 it has been a Site of Special Scientific Interest (part of 363.7 acres (1,472,000 m2)Otford To Shoreham Downs site). [2]
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".
Preston Hill has extensive views across the countryside from the Darenth Valley (following the River Darent) to Lullingstone Country Park. The site has 232 acres (940,000 m2) of chalk grassland and woodland with many wild flowers and rare butterflies at this site of outstanding natural beauty located within the Kent Downs. [3]
The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford, as illustrated by the adjacent photograph, snapped at high tide. 'Darenth' is frequently found in the spelling of the river's name in older books and maps, Bartholomew's "Canal's and River of England" being one example. Bartholomew's Gazetteer (1954) demonstrates that Darent means "clear water" and separately explains the other name. Considering the River Darent runs on a bed of chalk and its springs rise through chalk, this is not surprising. The original purity of the water was a major reason for the development of paper and pharmaceuticals in the area.
Lullingstone Country Park is near Eynsford, in Kent, England. A former deer park of a large estate, it was later sold to become an open-space and woodland park. The park and Lullingstone Castle are a Scheduled Monument, and an area of 66.4-hectare (164-acre) is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest Kent.
The Kent Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Kent, England. They are the eastern half of the North Downs and stretch from the London/Surrey borders to the White Cliffs of Dover. It is renowned for its natural beauty.
On the grasslands, a variety of butterflies including chalkhill blues and dark green fritillaries can be seen. Since the site is relatively quiet, common adders and grass snakes can also be found. [4] The grassland is grazed occasionally by a herd of feral goats, which came from the Great Orme, near Colwyn Bay in North Wales.These are used to further encourage the growth of wildflowers. [5]
The chalkhill blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
The dark green fritillary is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. The insect has a wide range in the Palearctic ecozone - Europe, Morocco, Iran, Siberia, Central Asia, China, Korea and Japan.
Vipera berus, also known as Marlies, Prags, Bardas or the common European adder or common European viper, is a venomous snake that is extremely widespread and can be found throughout most of Western Europe and as far as East Asia. Known by a host of common names including common adder and common viper, adders have been the subject of much folklore in Britain and other European countries. They are not regarded as especially dangerous; the snake is not aggressive and usually bites only when really provoked, stepped on, or picked up. Bites can be very painful, but are seldom fatal. The specific name, berus, is New Latin and was at one time used to refer to a snake, possibly the grass snake, Natrix natrix.
There are paths through the woodland (called 'Preston Plantation') at the top of the hill although they are steep in places and some have become overgrown. [4]
The park also is acreddited with a Green Flag Award by Natural England (linked with Lullingstone Country Park). [6]
