Beneath Our Feet

From local residents’ responses to the Eastling Appraisal Survey, it is very clear that most appreciate the attractiveness of the countryside around Eastling.

Central government and local authorities agree and Eastling Parish is entirely within the Kent Downs designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

So where does all our fine countryside come from? The origins of the area we know today as the North Downs start 100 million years ago when the whole of Kent was under water - covered by a shallow sea. This was home to countless microscopic organisms which created the first layers of chalk - adding roughly one foot every thousand years and eventually, becoming over 600 feet thick in places.

Geologists suggest that massive volcanic activity caused a large uplift of the chalk and underlying rock out of the sea 65 million years ago. It formed much of Kent and the southern home counties.

Over time, much of the raised chalk eroded, exposing the layers of rock underneath and creating the present-day Weald. What was left of the chalk in our area is the North Downs - with the Eastling area 300ft above sea level on its gentle dip slope.

One feature of the dip slope is the dry waterless valleys, mostly running south to north. These were created in the last Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago, when “summer” temperatures allowed melt-water streams to carve out the valleys. Further erosion of the chalk was much reduced by a natural growth of forest that followed. Today, all of that virgin forest has gone, replaced by farmland and tended woodland.

One feature of our downland geology that raises interest is the existence of “dene holes”. These deep vertical shafts into the chalk have an embarrassing habit of opening up when a thin covering of soil is disturbed! Eastling has experienced several which, depending on which expert you listen to, are explained as ancient chalk workings, one-time underground stores or natural geological faults.

Another interesting - and vital - feature is water... or the lack of it! Particularly notable is the absence of surface reservoirs or natural lakes on the Downs - all due to the chalk acting like a sponge to produce an underground water reserve (aquifer). Old maps record many wells at Eastling. Few remain today and even fewer are used.

Some of Eastling’s older residents will recall the extensive fruit orchards, much praised for their spring blossom in pre-war guides to the area. All but a few tiny remnants had been grubbed out by the late 1970s, victims to major changes in farming practices and agricultural policies and economics.

In recent years, the pendulum has swung to greater concern for the appearance and long-term well-being of the environment.

Landowners have been encouraged by government initiatives to look beyond intensive crop production towards a stronger role in countryside stewardship. New emphasis on tree-planting for coppicing, replacing and repairing hedges and a greatly reduced reliance on artificial chemicals are several examples of the drive to create a more diverse and sustainable ecosystem.