For centuries, Twyford Down has been regarded as one of the most mystical places in the South.

Protesters vent their anger at the M3 scheme.

The ancient pathways around St Catherine's Hill were ancient trackways – deep gulleys formed over centuries by people walking their animals into market and travelling between ancient sites and monuments. It was seen as a gathering place for ancient tribes, and was acknowledged as a site of extensive ecological and historical importance.

St Catherine's Hill was a centre of human settlement around 3000 years ago, long before the founding of Winchester. A fort was constructed in the 3rd century BC, and a Norman chapel was built in the 12th century AD.

Today the area is a nature reserve, renowned for its flower-rich turf and for butterflies such as the spectacular marbled white. Scrub removal and the continuation of grazing helps maintain the hill's clear open aspect. The presence of cattle and sheep improves conditions for wildlife, recreating the type of traditional chalk landscape last seen in the 1930s.

The area hit the national headlines in the early 1990s when roads protestors, angry at the building of the new M3 extension, included a 400 foot wide and 100 foot deep cut through the face of Twyford Down.

Through new generation of direct action against road building.

The protestors called themselves the Donga Tribe, after the

Throughout 1993 and 1994, over thousands of people joined in protests, many were arrested and although the protests proved unsuccessful in stopping the M3 extension, greatly added to the cost of the project and is credited with starting a re-think in government road building policy.