Category Archives: Devil’s Dyke
Off-lead dog kills Saddlescombe ewes and lambs
Brighton & Hove News reports:
Nine lambs and two ewes from Saddlescombe Farm next to Devil’s Dyke died after a dog chased them on Friday. Although the dog didn’t attack the sheep, the heavily pregnant ewes were so distressed the lambs aborted and two ewes also died.
Hate Speech
Cortinarius ainsworthii
Cortinarius ainsworthii is a newly described toadstool which grows on chalky soil. It was discovered in Devil’s Dyke in 2017 by the eponymous mycologist A. Martyn Ainsworth (Kew) and reported earlier this year in Hyde, K.D., Dong, Y., Phookamsak, R. et al. Fungal diversity notes 1151–1276: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa. Fungal Diversity 100, 5–277 (2020). No word as to toxicity.
Nude male hiker at large
[With thanks to Ms Louise Yates for the use of her photo.]
Extreme Social Distancing
Death at Dyke
There was an accident on the Saddlescombe Road at around 1:00pm on Sunday involving a black Renault DS3 and a green Ford Mondeo. A motorcyclist from Portslade died. If you saw the incident, or have any relevant information, contact the police online, quoting Operation Corfe.
Update: motorcyclist named.
The Dyke: a 1949 retrospect
In its C19/C20 heyday (see above), the Dyke was a magnet for summer day visitors. They even overflowed into the tearooms that both Poynings and Fulking then had to offer. But, by 1949, the hotel was a ruin, the area desolate, and there were no tourists or day-trippers. In February of that year, an unidentified writer looked back at the history of the site in the Evening Argus. The article was then reprinted by St.Andrews Quarterly in July of the same year.