North Wessex Downs of the AONB can be found Watership Down where the book "Watership Down" by Richard Adams is set, to the north of the small market town of Whitchurch, Hampshire. Significant parts of "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy are set on and in the villages connected to the Berkshire Downs. The Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated in 1972. It is currently managed by a Council of Partners whose members are: North Wessex Downs The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) (also known as the Chalkenwolds) is located in the English counties of West Berkshire, Hampshire,
Wessex he established earldoms based on the former kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, but initially administered Wessex personally. Within a few years, however, he had created an earldom of Wessex, encompassing all of England south of the Thames, for his English henchman Godwin. For almost fifty years the vastly wealthy holders of this earldom, first Godwin and then his son Harold, were the most powerful men in English politics after the king. Finally, on the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066, Harold became king, reuniting the earldom of Wessex with the crown. No new earl was appointed before