Lead organisation
Partner organisations
Project description
What does climate change look like on the ground? Wild Clocks is finding out by watching landscapes change, season by season.
Wild Clocks is a long-term project documenting how landscapes respond to changing temperature and rainfall. Using repeat photography and simple climate indicators, it tracks the timing, duration and structure of leaf emergence, flowering and other seasonal events, creating a consistent record of change over time.
By working across multiple sites, the project will build a growing visual record of how climate change is altering the seasonal rhythm of landscapes. It’s a simple way of making gradual change visible, revealing what is happening across the landscape and how those changes unfold from season to season, year after year.
The project will initially focus on chalk landscapes, building a network of observation sites and a shared approach that can grow over time.
Project location
The project will initially focus on chalk landscapes across Oxfordshire and Wiltshire, primarily within the North Wessex Downs National Landscape and the Upper Thames catchment.
Initial work is centred on sites close to Oxford, with the ambition to expand westwards along the chalk ridge towards Swindon and Marlborough. These landscapes offer a range of chalk grassland conditions, from differences in aspect and soil depth to variations in management.
By working across this geography, Wild Clocks will capture how seasonal patterns differ across the chalk landscape, building a connected picture of change from place to place and over time.
Contribution to Big Chalk
Wild Clocks supports the Big Chalk vision by helping us understand what climate change is doing to our chalk landscapes.
The project provides a consistent way to document seasonal change across chalk grassland and associated habitats—tracking when things happen, how long they last and how those patterns shift over time. This creates a valuable record alongside practical nature recovery, helping make the effects of a changing climate visible at landscape scale.
The project also reflects Big Chalk’s collaborative approach, working with land managers and partners to establish a network of observation sites and build a shared understanding of change. As the network grows, there is potential to involve communities through citizen science and public engagement, helping people notice and connect with the changing rhythms of the landscapes around them.
Do you have a project that could strengthen the future of southern England’s iconic chalk and limestone landscapes?
The Big Chalk programme brings together a dynamic suite of partner-led projects, each unique in its focus, area, and partnerships but sharing a commitment to our collective vision.
If your project contributes to the Big Chalk mission, we invite you to register it as a Big Chalk Project. Registered projects gain access to networking, shared learning, and best practice—alongside the Big Chalk brand, boosting your profile and connecting you to a powerful, growing network of partners.
Together, these projects form a united effort to secure the future of southern England’s chalk and limestone landscapes, making a lasting impact for nature and communities.