Southdown sheep wool and cereals due to rising volumes of imports from the British Empire was accompanied by the Wet Years - a six-year period of cold, wet weather with little sun. In the Second World War, the South Downs were commandeered for military training, only fringe farms being left to produce milk for the towns. Sheep farming declined further after the war, although it is now being encouraged again through the designation of the downland as an environmentally sensitive area, and the restoration of arable land to sheepwalk. The Southdown has been placed on a watch list by the Rare Breeds
Southdown and Eridge Hunt including Henfield. At Uckfield, the country extends north, to include Crowborough and Royal Tunbridge Wells and East to the A21. The hunt's best centres are Albourne, Chailey, Hadlow Down, Lewes and Mark Cross. Its terrain consists of wooded weald, well-fenced vale, and the open downland of the South Downs. The hunt is linked to three separate branches of The Pony Club, with the Southdown hunt founding a pony club in 1936, but which split in 1976 to form the Southdown Hunt West and Southdown Hunt East Pony Clubs, and the Eridge Hunt establishing a branch in 1935. Southdown and Eridge