Great Storm 1987

Today, Toys Hill is owned by the National Trust, and covers an area of more than 200 acres, just south of Westerham. The area is designated an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) due to the variety and abundance of wildlife in the area.

It is thought that a local land owning family provided the name for the Hill in the Middle Ages, and for hundreds of years it played a vital part in the area's economy.

Many of the tracks that criss-cross the site date from the time when horse drawn carts were used to carry leaf mould or gravel from the hill.

Trevor White

October 1987 was just the latest in a series of changes the Hill has seen over the centuries, and for Warden Trevor White, it has given the National Trust great opportunities to improve the area.

Since the storm, the Trust has experimented with three schemes of management:

• natural regeneration
• replanting
• non-intervention

In this film, Trevor explains the merits, and varying successes, of each method:

Over the last few hundred years the uses for the land have changed. Now open to the public and managed by the National Trust, it was once the site of private home. The view point on the top of the Hill gives uninterrupted vistas across the Kent and Sussex countryside, and many people think these panoramas should be maintained. But, as Trevor explains, if it wasn't for the Great Storm, and the damage it caused, you wouldn't be able to see the wood for the trees.

In the second film, Trevor takes us on a tour of Toys Hill: