The Vale of Pewsey seen from Walkers Hill, which is part of the Pewsey Downs Nature Reserve near Alton Barnes, Wiltshire, England. Fingers of chalk downland spread out into rich arable land below. This area, part of the North Wessex Downs, was heavily populated Neolithic times, and is scattered with the remains of settlements, fortifications, barrows and farms from then until the post-Roman Celtic period and early Saxon times.