Downe
The rural idyll has become as much a part of the nations psyche as fish and chips and luke warm beer. Almost 2.6 million Europeans left stressful city lifestyles to seek sanctuary in unspoilt chocolate box villages of their dreams. Perhaps we have a distorted image of a village that is an indigenous part of the landscape, unspoilt and enduring, a steadfast reminder of all things good.
For some it will always remain a dream but for others it is nestling in a wooded valley in the Borough of Bromley. I feel sorry for the pessimists out there who do not believe that serendipity can be found, as with the old saying “fortune favours the brave”. In Darwinist evolutionary terms that may be so but I believe it is the more discerning amongst us for whose thoughts are drawn to walks amongst the bluebells in the woods that surround Downe, who have ultimately found a better lifestyle.
Can you imagine what Wordsworth would have written if he had ventured south and strolled around Downe rather than the Lake District?
The poem that is imprinted on the Nations lips:
I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
He would have written about the bluebells that dance beneath the canopy of oak trees before they are hidden from the light by the leaves that are yet to unfurl from the many trees above them. The bluebells would be far more relevant to the country as we all recognise the blue haze that cloaks the ground of ancient woods in Spring. Everyone including Darwin delights in the entrancing glow that bluebells spread upon the dark and gloomy woodland floor, a marker of untouched land. We have 20% of the world’s wild bluebells, which means that this most familiar flower is actually very precious. The thrill isn’t in picking them but letting the intoxicating scent drift upwards as you wander through them. Bluebells are endangered not by man but by evolution and the stronger Spanish bluebell. I wonder what Darwin would have done to protect something that is part of the nation’s heritage.
I am sure that Darwin might well have had a theory about mans passion for things that he has grown up with and his hankering for the “good old days” of times past. Things in this life can never stand still but something’s can be allowed to develop slowly and mature so that it retains a certain harmony with its surroundings and the earthy mellow dignity of age. That is exactly what has happened to Downe, the majority of the houses were tied cottages for agricultural workers and these have slowly come onto the open market as much desired homes for people who although still work in the city want the peace and tranquillity of the countryside to return to each evening after a stressful day in the office. Much of the centre of Downe is unchanged since Darwin lived here. The buildings may have different uses but are still very similar in outlook thanks to the hard work of the conservationists.
Downe is situated at the southern end of the Borough of Bromley in the heart of the ever endangered Green Belt and yet not to far from the urban sprawl of Greater London. It borders Biggin Hill airport to the West, Cudham to the South East and Farnborough to the North.
Many people visit the area to make the most of the fantastic country walks and with nearby High Elms Country Park offering a further 250 acres of nature trails, woodland and formal gardens it isn’t hard to imagine why walkers and cyclists find the area so attractive. Where else can you walk the very footpaths used by former Prime Minister William Pitt and William Wilberforce? It isn’t too difficult to imagine their heated discussions about the abolishment of slavery as they gazed across the Vale of Keston.
Although quiet and peaceful the area has been home to the major “movers and shakers” of the world as we know it. Who would have believed that in the 18th century slavery would be outlawed and even more disturbing that one of the residents would take on the church with his theory of evolution! However the main attraction of Downe will always be Darwin and his home at Down House where he wrote his world changing book “The Origin of Species” which is now in the care of English Heritage.
For many years Downe remained a village where the main source of income was derived from producing fruit and vegetables for the London markets well into the 20th century. A careful inspection will reveal links to the Romans – plenty of remains have been found in the area with Caesars Well nearby in Biggin Hill. The name of Downe owes nothing to Roman occupation; it is from the old English word “dun” which means hill. It slowly developed during the 12th century with a chapel that was built in 1291. The coming of the church gave the settlement some stature within the area but nothing that would equal the designation as a Unesco World Heritage Site which it has been tipped to receive in 2009 to mark the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin
copyright© Wendy Stevenson 2011
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