Bowerchalke Downs

Bowerchalke Downs (grid reference SU004218) (also known as Woodminton, Marleycombe Down and Knowle Down), is a 128.6 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1971. The downs encompass the entire southern outlook of the village of Bowerchalke in the Salisbury district of Wiltshire, England, and are adjacent to both the Hampshire and Dorset county boundaries. The Bowerchalke Downs are located within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and are part of the Southern England Chalk Formation.

The English Nature citation from 1971 states that:

"This site is an extensive area of floristically rich chalk grassland, a habitat which has become increasingly scarce due to agricultural intensification. It lies along an escarpment of the Middle Chalk overlooking the Ebble Valley in South Wiltshire and has slopes of several aspects. Present on the site are plant and animal species with a nationally restricted distribution."

"Most of the site comprises species-rich turf in which sheep's-fescue Festuca ovina and meadow oat-grass Avenula pratensis are major components whilst quaking-grass Briza media, salad burnet Sanguisorba minor, small scabious Scabiosa columbaria, and cowslip Primula veris are widespread and frequent."

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