I’ve long wanted to visit the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, about a 90-minute drive from Sydenham, so welcomed an opportunity to join one of my brothers in a perusal.

Knepp isn’t necessarily a photogenic place; there are no hills and valleys or stunning vistas. But its scrubby terrain, streams, ponds and pasture felt properly authentic and rural as if time had stood still for centuries. I was astonished by the abundance of hawthorn and blackthorn (pictured above) which underlined to me just how central these bushes and small trees are to our countryside. Soon after entering we came across several score whitethroats along with other warblers, heard a turtle dove, cuckoos, woodpeckers, yellowhammers and corn buntings. At a large pond (below) a kingfisher darted hither and thither. So the rewilding has clearly worked! We came across longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs and red deer, each species of which contribute to keeping things in order and encouraging insects and birdlife. The pigs, an ancient species, are a substitute for wild boar. 

But there was one beef I had: the local dog walkers. Sorry guys, but letting your dogs off the lead in such a place as Knepp is absolutely not on. I know it’s within the rules technically (the signs only specify ‘keep dogs under control’) but we saw three dogs clearly not under any control. One dog briefly went after the Tamworth pig family, causing the huge sow to go into full attack mode. Luckily, the gormless owners were able to grab their hound before any harm was done (to the dog) but in doing so they’d put themselves in some danger. I was seething at their stupidity! What’s odd is that I’ve never seen dogs so poorly managed on any of the Kent walks – so how can it be that a famous rewilding estate with such rare nature can attract such behaviour? The equivalent would be seeing dogs chasing deer in Knole Park – something I’ve never seen.