Jacob's sheep on Riddlesdown

Today I went to Riddlesdown which is near Purley, south of Croydon. It is a big piece of common land belonging to the City of London corporation. They have Jacob's sheep there which graze to manage the grassland and they often have cows too but they've gone away for the winter. It felt very rural but it's actually just about still inside London.

It is on a big hill and I climbed a long way from Purley town centre to get to Riddlesdown Common, then walked down to the bottom of the old quarry and then followed a footpath on a whim which took me all the way up to the top again. Eventually I found myself in Hamsey Green and managed to find a bus home. I got very muddy, thanks to some muddy footpaths and a rather over eager Staffie dog.

As well as the sheep I saw a partridge. At first I couldn't see what kind of creature it was. It looked maybe like a rabbit but moved too slowly. Its tail made it look more like a pangolin from behind. Unfortunately it disappeared before I got any really clear photos of it. More photos from today.