Berkshire Downs

The Berkshire Downs also known as the Lambourn Downs are a range of downland hills in southern England, part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Geologically they are continuous with the Marlborough Downs to the west and the Chilterns to the east. The Berkshire Downs lie east-west, with their scarp slope facing north into the Vale of White Horse and their dip slope bounded by the course of the River Kennet. In the east they are divided from the Chilterns by Goring Gap on the River Thames. In the west their boundary with the Marlborough Downs lies approximately along a Roman road between Swindon and Savernake Forest. English downland has attracted human habitation since prehistoric times. Prehistoric sites in the Berkshire Downs include The Ridgeway and Wayland's Smithy ( Neolithic), numerous tumuli (Neolithic or Bronze Age), Uffington White Horse (Bronze Age), Liddington Castle and Uffington Castle (Bronze Age and Iron Age), and Segsbury Camp and Grim's Ditch (Iron Age). Downland pasture is firm and well-drained, suited to grazing sheep and grazing and training horses. Horse racing is a major business in the area, with much of downs covered with training areas, and stables centred on the village of Lambourn. The Berkshire Downs were wholly within Berkshire until the 1974 reorganisation of local government boundaries divided them between the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.