This year’s annual haymaking at Hawkshill Freedown will be held on 7^th October 2026, everyone is welcome to come along and help out. Volunteers from groups as well as those coming solo will be there, giving a hand to rake up the grass and enjoying the work in the meadow.

So if you would like to come along then we aim to start at 10am and finish by 12pm, if we can’t quite get finished in one day than we’ll be there again during the weekend. The only thing you’ll need to bring is a rake and a pair of gardening gloves and volunteers and members of the council will be there to show you around and let you know what going on.

If you would like more information then please contact the council offices on 01304 362363 or via email to info@walmercouncil.co.uk.

Haymaking at Hawkshill Freedown 2026 - Walmer Town Council

Hawkshill Freedown is a thirteen-and-a-half-acre green area purchased in 1999 to ensure its continued existence as an open space.  Originally owned by the Leith estate, Walmer Town Council sought to keep the Freedown as it was for the benefit of not only the people of  Walmer but for the wildlife that called it home. The Freedown is home to numerous rare species or moth and reptile, as well as incredible  views high above the town of Walmer and the English Channel.

Currently administered by the Walmer In Bloom committee and tended to by a team of volunteers. Teeming with wildlife, particularly  wildflowers and rare butterflies, Hawkshill is one of the few remaining chalk grasslands left in Britain. With the loss of almost 80% of the  chalk grasslands in Britain means that their help is something that is sorely needed. Although Hawkshill is a relatively small site it  represents 0.2% of this remaining type of vegetation in Kent, with several residents with experience and environmental specialists have also been approached where necessary.

Hawkshill Freedown is registered as common land and as a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and has had an interesting and varied history. It is also home of two war memorials, the first a century old memorialising those lost from Walmer Aerodrome in World War One and the other a newer memorial situated on the Freedown itself including those lost in both World Wars.

You can find out more about the site from the interpretation boards which have been erected throughout the Freedown, or you can get more information from the pages on this website and at the WalmerWeb webpage.

Latest News

New Trees

Thanks to the efforts of Walmer Council and the volunteers at Hawkshill, several hundred new whips have been planted along the channel facing  side of the Freedown. Gaining funds from the Kent County Council Historic Treescapes Grant, the new trees were obtained from a local company  and planting completed only a few weeks later.

Dead Hedge

Many of the broken branches and trimmed pieces from the bushes and trees of the Freedown have been turned into a dead hedge. This is an upright  structure of cuttings such as tree branches woven between vertical stakes, once in place this forms a barrier to prevent trespass and to create new  habitats for wildlife.

Slow Worms

With the decreasing population of these small, harmless reptiles, it has been a joy to find that an ever-growing population of Slow Worms have been found at Hawkshill Freedown. Their protected status means that they along with numerous other protected and rare species of wildlife

Management Plan

The Hawkshill Freedown Management Plan has been updated by volunteer members in order to continue to improve the Freedown and to ensure its prosperity into the future. A link to the plan can be found below.

Watering the Hedging

With new hedging comes new needs for Hawkshill, as summer begins to make its appearance it will be necessary to water the new trees and hedging that has been planted. So if you are going for a walk through the Freedown or are visiting for any reason, then please remember to take a bottle of water or two with you, to keep both yourself and the plants well hydrated at the hottest time of the year.

Equipment and Training

New equipment is purchased for the use by the volunteers as required, and the council offers courses and qualifications for them to be used safely and effectively. In addition it is hoped that qualifications for the volunteers may also be obtained, allowing those who care for Hawkshill to continue to do.

Survey

A survey to check the state of the trees throughout the Freedown will be going ahead, thanks to the efforts of the volunteers it is known that a few need to be tended to. Once the survey is completed Walmer Town Council and the volunteers will know which trees may need to be removed and which will stay where they are, hale and hearty.

Volunteers

Volunteers are always needed for Hawkshill Freedown, many of our current group work on Sundays to endure everything is tended to. But if you are interested in helping, then everyone is welcome to give a hand. It is hoped to begin weekday groups as well, allowing those who may not be able to make it on a Sunday to give their time and effort.

Friends of Hawkshill Freedown

The Friends of Hawkshill Freedown Instagram is also available, showing pictures of wildlife and volunteers hard at work to keep the site as functional an beautiful as ever.

Instagram- Friends of Hawkshill Freedown 

There is also a facebook page for Hawkshill run by our volunteers.

Facebook-Hawkshill

What 3 Words

What3words is an app that can be used to identify locations, every 3m square area has been given a combination of three words to make up an address that can be added to the area. Below is a small selection of these addresses for locations that are tended to by the council and volunteers.

Hawkshill War Memorial: crafts.different.flamenco
Hawkshill Car Park. vibes.vowel.acids
Walmer Peace Gardens: remarks.slouched.unwell
Drill Field: dads.hears.engine

Hawkshill Freedown or as many people know it The Glen, the old aerodrome, or simply Hawkshill, is a special place for people for different reasons. It is a safe place to walk away from traffic with excellent views of the sea and into the grounds of Walmer Castle. It is a popular place for dog walkers, joggers and those that simply want to walk or sit in peace and soak up the views and observe nature.

The Walmer in Bloom Committee are responsible for overseeing the management of Hawkshill on behalf of the council.

Over the last 20 years it has benefitted from the dedicated volunteers who have given their time to help maintain the area. In September 2023 we initiated a yearlong review of the previous habitat management plans of 2010 and 2015, by one of the volunteers with a special interest in ecology-Steve Coates. Steve has been very proactive and formed links with our neighbours at Hawkshill Meadow and other agencies so that we can continue to learn and develop the site to encourage and protect nature.

The volunteer working group, (that meet most Sundays), were fully involved and engaged with the process, so that our programme of works takes notice of their ideas, knowledge and history of the area.

Special mention must go to Cllr Peter Finlay and Sarah Fawcett from Gazen Salts who for the second year running, have spent over 2 weeks cutting our meadow in a manner that saves and protects the wildlife ready for the following seasons. We also ran a campaign to get the community to assist with the ‘Haymaking’ and we were bowled over by the response and the new additions to the volunteer working party. This year we planted 250 native bluebells bulbs and new hedging that we hope to see flourish in the spring.

In the next 5 years we will build on our success, widening the area of chalkland, keeping the meadow free from invasive species EG Alexandar and Blackthorn. We will continue to focus on the woodland walk removing and restricting the sycamores and growth from previously dumped garden waste to improve the opportunities for native flowering plants.

By investing in new equipment, training and having a preferred contractor, (who we will engage with at every stage), we will be able to manage the land in a sympathetic and effective way. We are still restricted and governed by resources, and we cannot and will not be transforming the site to manicured parkland, we will prioritise wisely on behalf of the community.

We could not do any of this without our amazing volunteers- thank you for your continuing support, and if anyone reading this would be interested in helping us at Hawkshill then please contact the Walmer Town Council offices on 01304 362363 or at info@walmercouncil.co.uk.

In Early August volunteers at Hawkshill Freedown carried out the annual invertebrate study on the Meadow, dividing it into three sections in line with the current three-yearly rotation cutting of the grass.

In summary:

As expected, numbers of both butterflies and bees tend to be higher in the herb-rich areas of the meadow, with no particular change in more recently-cut area.

Grasshoppers and Wasp Spiders are more affected by the annual cut, with most seen in the 2-year-uncut northern part - but fewer were seen this year overall.

It must be expected that the extreme temperatures and lack of rain will have had an impact on invertebrate numbers.

The cutting regime was agreed with Butterfly Conservation.

 Pictures courtesy of Mr S Coates