Beggars Bush wildflower meadow is located at Beggars Bush car park, Titch Hill Road, Sompting BN15 0AY.

The site is about 3500 square metres with a plethora of Chalk meadow flowers; eg birds foot trefoil, greater knapweed, restharrow, bladder campion, bristly oxtongue, ladys bedstraw, agrimony, yellow rattle. Only the last of these has been sown in. We cut and remove the grass in autumn, and spread it on the lower meadow extension area.

There are no restrictions, as it is an open access area and can be visited directly from the adjacent free public car park. Flowers are at their best in June-July.

Fly tipping and littering, and traffic speed have historically been concerns. The South Downs National Park Authority has been working with Sompting Estate and Lychpole Farm to fence and restore the flowermeadow areas and clear historic litter from the former lower carpark. 

The project is also creating a new off-road path so that walkers heading towards Cissbury can return via Lychpole Hill SSSI chalk grassland, and get back to the carpark without having to walk on the road:

The new track will in the future be maintained mechanically by Sompting Estate’s Titch Hill Farm, and manually (eg litterpicks) by volunteers from Sustainable Sussex’s Community Farm.  Where it passes through Beggars Bush Flower meadow, the Community Farm will assist with seasonal sheep grazing.

We can consider saving and sharing seeds for the future, however, for the time being we expect to need all the seed generated on site for the meadow’s southward extension.

For more information visit Sompting Estate and Sustainable Sussex