A heath ( / ˈ h iː θ / ) is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain —a cooler and damper climate.
109-531: Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . It is situated 30 miles (48 km) south of London in the county East Sussex , England. Rising to an elevation of 732 feet (223 m) above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald to the chalk escarpments of
218-548: A 2014 study, which then Business and Energy Minister Michael Fallon said "will bring jobs and business opportunities" and significantly help with UK energy self-sufficiency. Fracking in the area would be required to achieve these objectives, which has been opposed by environmental groups. Prehistoric evidence suggests that, following the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, the Neolithic inhabitants had turned to farming, with
327-445: A barrier to agricultural improvement. The forest predominantly consists of lowland heathland . Of the 2,472 ha of forest common land, 55% (1365 ha) is heathland while 40% (997 ha) is mixed woodland. Lowland heathland is a particularly valuable but increasingly threatened habitat harbouring rare plant and animal species, which lends the forest importance at a European level. The survival of the forest's extensive heathlands has become all
436-614: A distinctive, iconic hilltop feature of Ashdown Forest were first planted in 1816 by the Lord of the Manor to provide habitats for blackgame . 20th-century plantings comprise Macmillan Clump near Chelwood Gate (commemorating former British prime-minister Harold Macmillan , who lived at Birch Grove, on the edge of the forest at Chelwood Gate), Kennedy Clump (commemorating a visit to the area by John F. Kennedy , when he stayed with Macmillan), Millennium Clump and Friends Clump, planted in 1973 to mark
545-579: A few individual old trees, especially beech, that mark former boundaries. The two most common forms of forest woodland are oak woods on acid brown earth soils, including hazel and chestnut coppice (62% of the total woodland area), and birch woods with oak in degenerating heathlands (27%). Alder trees growing in wet and waterlogged peaty soils account for about 1% of the woodland, while birch and willow trees growing in wet areas each account for less than 1%. Beechwoods growing on acid brown earth soils account for another 3%. The clumps of Scots pine that form such
654-732: A flowering season lasting from July well into October and is found in about a dozen colonies. Gorse ( Ulex europaeus ), silver birch ( Betula pendula ), pedunculate oak ( Quercus robur ) and Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ) are scattered across the heath, in places forming extensive areas of secondary woodland and scrub. Older woodlands consist of beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) and sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa ). These contain bluebell ( Hyacinthinoides non-scripta ), bilberry ( Vaccinium myrtillus ), hard fern ( Blechnum spicant ) and honeysuckle ( Lonicera periclymenum ) with birds-nest orchid ( Neottia nidus-avis ) and violet helleborine ( Epipactis purpurata ) found particularly under beech. In
763-838: A geological structure, an anticline , a dome of layered Lower Cretaceous rocks cut through by weathering to expose the layers as sandstone ridges and clay valleys. The oldest rocks exposed at the centre of the anticline are correlated with the Purbeck Beds of the Upper Jurassic . Above these, the Cretaceous rocks, include the Wealden Group of alternating sands and clays – the Ashdown Sand Formation , Wadhurst Clay Formation , Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation (collectively known as
872-549: A harsh and much resented supplement to the common law that was designed to protect, for the king's benefit, the beasts of the chase, such as deer and wild boar, and the vegetation (the vert ) that provided them with food and cover. Forest law prescribed severe penalties, particularly in the 11th and 12th centuries, for those who transgressed, and for a time it governed large parts of the English countryside, including entire counties such as Surrey and Essex. However, while forest land
981-562: A horseshoe shape around Ashdown Forest, which has influenced the historical geography of iron-working around the forest. Like the rest of the Weald, Ashdown lay beyond the southern limits of Quaternary ice sheets, but the whole area was subject at times to a severe periglacial environment that has contributed to its geology and shaped its landforms. Ashdown Forest is one of the largest single continuous blocks of lowland heath, semi-natural woodland and valley bog in south east England. Its geology
1090-624: A medieval hunting forest. Red deer ( Cervus elaphus ), an integral part of Wealden culture since as far back as 6,000-8,000 years ago, and fallow deer ( Dama dama )—brought by the Romans from mainland Europe—, present in Sussex in the Romano-British era and particularly favoured by the Normans for hunting, were both commonly hunted in the forest until the 17th century; around that time,
1199-525: A pension from the crown and made warden of the Weald in reward for his services. The inhabitants of the Weald remained largely independent and hostile to outsiders during the next decades. In 1264 during the Second Barons' War , the royalist army of King Henry III of England marched through the Weald in order to force the submission of the Cinque Ports . Even though they were not aligned with
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#17327658490051308-608: A place that is called Cymenshore . There they slew many of the Welsh; and some in flight they drove into the wood that is called Andred'sley. Until the Late Middle Ages the forest was a notorious hiding place for criminals. Settlements on the Weald are widely scattered. Villages evolved from small settlements in the woods, typically four to five miles (six to eight kilometres) apart; close enough to be an easy walk but not so close as to encourage unnecessary intrusion. Few of
1417-767: A pretty village, called Forest-Row , and then, on the road to Uckfield , you cross Ashurst [ sic ] Forest, which is a heath, with here and there a few birch scrubs upon it, verily the most villainously ugly spot I saw in England. This lasts you for five miles (8.0 km), getting, if possible, uglier and uglier all the way, till, at last, as if barren soil, nasty spewy gravel, heath and even that stunted, were not enough, you see some rising spots, which instead of trees, present you with black, ragged, hideous rocks. The predominantly open, heathland landscape of Ashdown Forest described so vividly by Cobbett in 1822 and later immortalised by E.H. Shepard in his illustrations for
1526-735: A resource by people living on its fringes, much as in other places in Britain such as Dartmoor , the Fens and the Forest of Arden . The Weald was used for centuries, possibly since the Iron Age , for transhumance of animals along droveways in the summer months. Over the centuries, deforestation for the shipbuilding, charcoal, forest glass , and brickmaking industries has left the Low Weald with only remnants of that woodland cover. While most of
1635-645: Is Old Lodge Local Nature Reserve , most of which is managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust . Though not a statutory designation, Ashdown Forest forms part of the Western Ouse Streams and Ashdown Forest Biodiversity Opportunity Area , and is thus a subject of the Sussex Biodiversity Action Plan , which aims to focus conservation bodies, local government and statutory agencies on work to conserve and enhance
1744-473: Is a great deal of surface water: ponds and many meandering streams. Some areas, such as the flat plain around Crawley , have been utilised for urban use: here are Gatwick Airport and its related developments and the Horley -Crawley commuter settlements. Otherwise the Low Weald retains its historic settlement pattern, where the villages and small towns occupy harder outcrops of rocks. There are no large towns on
1853-645: Is a major influence on its biology and ecology. The underlying sandstone geology of the Ashdown Sands, when combined with a local climate that is generally wetter, cooler and windier than the surrounding area owing to the forest's elevation, which rises from 200 feet (61 m) to over 700 feet (210 m) above sea level, gives rise to sandy, largely podzolic soils that are characteristically acid, clay, and nutrient-poor. On these poor, infertile soils have developed heathland, valley mires and damp woodland. These conditions have never favoured cultivation and have been
1962-459: Is a popular destination for bird-watchers. The forest contains four main bird habitats: The forest supports a rich invertebrate fauna, with many heathland specialities. Half of Britain's 46 breeding species of damselflies and dragonflies (the Odonata ) have been recorded, the scarcer among them being the black darter , brilliant emerald and small red damselfly . It is also an important home for
2071-564: Is available as the local seed source, and thus it may not reflect the natural vegetation before the heathland became established. The heath features prominently in: Weald The Weald ( / ˈ w iː l d / ) is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs . It crosses the counties of Hampshire , Surrey , West Sussex , East Sussex , and Kent . It has three parts,
2180-580: Is considered to be a cheaper and more effective way of restoring and maintaining heathland than the use of mowing machinery. Sheep (which are a recent introduction to the forest, having only become 'commonable' since 1900) are particularly useful because they graze scrub and in places that are difficult to mow. In 1996 the Secretary of State for the Environment gave permission for a 550 hectares (1,400 acres) fenced enclosure, representing about one-third of
2289-708: Is derived from the Old English weald , meaning "forest" (cognate of German Wald , but unrelated to English "wood"). This comes from a Germanic root of the same meaning, and ultimately from Indo-European . Weald is specifically a West Saxon form; wold is the Anglian form of the word. The Middle English form of the word is wēld , and the modern spelling is a reintroduction of the Old English form attributed to its use by William Lambarde in his A Perambulation of Kent of 1576. In early medieval Britain,
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#17327658490052398-460: Is dominant over large areas. On the damper heath, cross-leaved heath ( Erica tetralix ) becomes dominant with deer-grass ( Trichophorum cespitosum . The heath and bracken communities form a mosaic with acid grassland dominated by purple moor-grass ( Molinia caerulea ) mingled with many specialised heathland plants such as petty whin ( Genista anglica ), creeping willow ( Salicaceae sp.) and heath spotted orchid ( Dactylorhiza maculata ). In
2507-631: Is famous for serving as inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood , the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories written by A. A. Milne . Milne lived on the northern edge of the forest and took his son, Christopher Robin , walking there. The artist E. H. Shepard drew on the landscapes of Ashdown Forest as inspiration for many of the illustrations he provided for the Pooh books. Ashdown Forest notably lacks any significant settlements within
2616-667: Is favoured where climatic conditions are typically hard and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often sandy and very free-draining; a mire may occur where drainage is poor, but usually is only small in extent. Heaths are dominated by low shrubs, 20 centimetres (8 in) to 2 metres (7 feet) tall. Heath vegetation can be extremely plant-species rich, and heathlands of Australia are home to some 3,700 endemic or typical species in addition to numerous less restricted species. The fynbos heathlands of South Africa are second only to tropical rainforests in plant biodiversity with over 7,000 species. In marked contrast,
2725-464: Is of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is probably derived from the personal name of an individual or people called Æsca , combined with dūn , Old English for hill or down, hence Æsca's dūn —the hill of Æsca. It has no connection with ash trees , which have never been common given the soil conditions. The second word, forest , is a term here used by the Normans to denote land that was subject to forest law ,
2834-664: Is shaped, roughly speaking, like an inverted triangle, some 7 miles (11 km) from east to west and the same distance from north to south. The boundary of the forest can be defined in various ways, but the most important is that given by the line of the medieval pale, which goes back to its origins as a hunting forest. The pale, first referred to in a document of 1283, consisted of a ditch and bank surmounted by an oak palisade . 23 miles (37 km) in length, it enclosed an area of some 20.5 square miles (5,300 ha). The original embankment and ditch, albeit now rather degraded and overgrown, can still be discerned in places today. In 1693
2943-577: Is the largest area with open public access in South East England . The ecological importance of Ashdown Forest's heathlands is reflected by its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest , as a Special Protection Area for birds, and as a Special Area of Conservation for its heathland habitats. It is part of the European Natura 2000 network as it hosts some of Europe's most threatened species and habitats. Ashdown Forest
3052-503: Is the oldest Cretaceous geological formation that crops out in the Weald. The Ashdown Formation has been exposed by the erosion, over many millions of years, of a geological dome, the Weald-Artois Anticline , a process which has left the dome's oldest layers, the resistant sandstones that form its central east–west axis, as a high forest ridge that includes Ashdown, St. Leonard's, and Worth forests. This forest ridge,
3161-544: Is the silver-studded blue butterfly, Plebejus argus . Anthropogenic heath habitats are a cultural landscape that can be found worldwide in locations as diverse as northern and western Europe , the Americas , Australia , New Zealand , Madagascar and New Guinea . These heaths were originally made or expanded by centuries of human clearance of the natural forest and woodland vegetation, by grazing and burning. In some cases this clearance went so far that parts of
3270-477: The Battle Abbey for the disloyalty of its tenants. In the first edition of On The Origin of Species , Charles Darwin used an estimate for the erosion of the chalk, sandstone and clay strata of the Weald in his theory of natural selection . Charles Darwin was a follower of Lyell's theory of uniformitarianism and decided to expand upon Lyell's theory with a quantitative estimate to determine if there
3379-826: The Hastings Beds ) and the Weald Clay . The Wealden Group is overlain by the Lower Greensand and the Gault Formation, consisting of the Gault and the Upper Greensand . The rocks of the central part of the anticline include hard sandstones, and these form hills now called the High Weald . The peripheral areas are mostly of softer sandstones and clays and form a gentler rolling landscape,
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3488-610: The Low Weald . The Weald–Artois Anticline continues some 40 miles (64 km) further south-eastwards under the Straits of Dover , and includes the Boulonnais of France . Many important fossils have been found in the sandstones and clays of the Weald, including, for example, Baryonyx . The famous scientific hoax of Piltdown Man was claimed to have come from a gravel pit at Piltdown near Uckfield . The first Iguanodon
3597-696: The North Downs and South Downs on the horizon. Ashdown Forest originated as a medieval hunting forest created soon after the Norman conquest of England. By 1283 the forest was fenced in by a 23 miles (37 km) pale enclosing an area of 20 square miles (52 km; 13,000 acres; 5,200 ha). Thirty-four gates and hatches in the pale, still remembered in place names such as Chuck Hatch and Chelwood Gate, allowed local people to enter to graze their livestock, collect firewood, and cut heather and bracken for animal bedding. The forest continued to be used by
3706-671: The Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . In extent it covers about 85 miles (137 km) from west to east, and about 30 miles (48 km) from north to south, covering an area of some 500 square miles (1,300 km ). The eastern end of the High Weald, the English Channel coast, is marked in the centre by the high sandstone cliffs from Hastings to Pett Level ; and by former sea cliffs now fronted by
3815-408: The golden-ringed dragonfly , which flies from mid-June to early September. Of the forest's 34 species of butterfly, the most spectacular, the purple emperor , can be hard to see. Another speciality, the silver-studded blue , is by contrast plentiful, with the main food plants of its caterpillars being gorses and heathers. Deer have been a major feature of Ashdown Forest, at least since its days as
3924-723: The long tunnel near Balcombe and the Ouse Valley Viaduct . Tributaries of the River Ouse provided some assistance in the building of now-closed East Grinstead - Lewes and the Uckfield -Lewes lines. The principal main-line railway to Hastings had to negotiate difficult terrain when it was first built, necessitating many sharp curves and tunnels; and similar problems had to be faced with the Ashford-Hastings line. Several long-distance footpaths criss-cross
4033-475: The sandstone "High Weald" in the centre, the clay "Low Weald" periphery and the Greensand Ridge , which stretches around the north and west of the Weald and includes its highest points. The Weald once was covered with forest and its name, Old English in origin, signifies "woodland". The term is still used, as scattered farms and villages sometimes refer to the Weald in their names. The name "Weald"
4142-632: The tree pipit . In Australia the heathland avian fauna is dominated by nectar-feeding birds such as honey-eaters and lorikeets , although numerous other birds from emus to eagles are also common in Australian heathlands. The birds of the South African fynbos include sunbirds , warblers and siskins. Heathlands are also an excellent habitat for insects including ants , moths, butterflies and wasps; many species are restricted entirely to it. One such example of an organism restricted to heathland
4251-404: The 17th century, but wild breeding populations have recently returned in the Weald, following escapes from boar farms. The Weald has been associated with many writers, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) and Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). The setting for A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories
4360-463: The 1820s and depicted by Shepard in the 1920s changed dramatically soon after the end of World War II when the commoners' exploitation of the forest - exercising their rights of common to graze livestock, cut bracken, etc. - declined to very low levels. The result was a regeneration of woodland and the loss of heathland: the proportion of heathland in the forest fell from 90% in 1947 to 60% in 2007. The forest conservators have now committed to maintaining
4469-491: The 400 ha on the forest has been mown twice a year since 2000. Large areas of the highly invasive Rhododendron ponticum have been cleared, initially funded by the Forestry Commission , and now carried on by local volunteers. Birch and other tree saplings are cut down in the winter. The conservators have taken steps to promote livestock grazing on the forest as part of their heathland management policy. Grazing
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4578-529: The Ashdown Forest to help tackle a variety of fast-growing botanical species, and thus keep the heathland habitat balanced by preventing scrub encroachment. The Exmoor ponies are not truly domesticated; rather, they are managed by the Ashdown Forest which keeps them enclosed within large areas. Ashdown Forest's landscape in the early 19th century was famously described by William Cobbett : At about three miles (4.8 km) from Grinstead you come to
4687-711: The Atlantic-facing western coastal regions of Britain. Uncommon bryophytes such as the liverwort Nardia compressa and a range of ferns including the mountain fern Oreopteris limbosperma and the hay-scented buckler fern Dryopteris aemula thrive in this “Atlantic” microclimate. The damming of streams, digging for marl, and quarrying have produced several large ponds containing, particularly in former marl pits, localised rafts of broad-leaved pondweed Potamogeton natans , beds of bulrush (reedmace) Typha latifolia and water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile . Woodland covers nearly 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of
4796-808: The Cretaceous period as a result of the Alpine orogeny . Ashdown Forest is itself situated on a local dome, the Crowborough Anticline. Much of the iron ore that provided the raw material for the iron industry of Ashdown Forest was obtained from the Wadhurst Clay , which is sandwiched between the Ashdown Sands and Tunbridge Wells Sands (the latter encircles Ashdown Forest forming an extensive district of hilly, wooded countryside). Outcrops of Wadhurst Clay , which occurs as both nodules and in tabular masses, are distributed discontinuously in
4905-547: The HLS scheme. A flock of Hebridean sheep, ultimately 300 in number, was guided by a shepherd and an assistant to graze unenclosed areas of the forest heathland. Among the advantages of this approach were that no fencing was required and grazing could be targeted on the most overgrown areas; among the disadvantages were its high labour intensity, high costs and low impact. The conservators have now begun using temporary electric fencing, which can be moved around to isolate different parts of
5014-407: The High Weald in lime green (9a). The Low Weald , the periphery of the Weald, is shown as darker green on the map (9), and has an entirely different character. It is in effect the eroded outer edges of the High Weald, revealing a mixture of sandstone outcrops within the underlying clay. As a result, the landscape is of wide and low-lying clay vales with small woodlands ( "shaws" ) and fields. There
5123-500: The Low Weald, although Ashford , Sevenoaks and Reigate lie immediately on the northern edge. Settlements tend to be small and linear, because of its original wooded nature and heavy clay soils. The Weald is drained by the many streams radiating from it, the majority being tributaries of the surrounding major rivers: particularly the Mole , Medway , Stour , Rother , Cuckmere , Ouse , Adur and Arun . Many of these streams provided
5232-632: The Pevensey and Romney Marshes on either side. Much of the High Weald , the central part, is designated as the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its landscape is described as one of rolling hills, studded with sandstone outcrops and cut by streams to form steep-sided ravines (called gills); small irregular-shaped fields and patches of heathland, abundant woodlands; scattered farmsteads and sunken lanes and paths. Ashdown Forest , an extensive area of heathland and woodland occupying
5341-579: The SSSI, Hindleap Warren, Broadstone Warren and Old Lodge, which covers 76 hectares (0.3 sq mi). The SPA covers 3,207 hectares (12.4 sq mi) while the SAC covers 2,729 hectares (10.5 sq mi). Ashdown Forest is the largest public access space in south east England, and the largest area of open, uncultivated countryside. A 2008 visitor survey estimated that at least 1.35 million visits are made each year. The most common reason given for visiting
5450-590: The Sun had been burning for less than a million years, and put the outside limit of the age of the Earth at 200 million years. Based on these estimates he denounced Darwin's geological estimates as imprecise. Darwin saw Lord Kelvin's calculation as one of the most serious criticisms to his theory and removed his calculations on the Weald from the third edition of On the Origin of Species . Modern chronostratigraphy shows that
5559-783: The Weald Clays were laid down around 130 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous. The Weald begins north-east of Petersfield in Hampshire and extends across Surrey and Kent in the north, and Sussex in the south. The western parts in Hampshire and West Sussex, known as the Western Weald , are included in the South Downs National Park . Other protected parts of the Weald are included in
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#17327658490055668-416: The Weald was used for transhumance by communities at the edge of the Weald, several parts of the forest on the higher ridges in the interior seem to have been used for hunting by the kings of Sussex . The pattern of droveways which occurs across the rest of the Weald is absent from these areas. These areas include St Leonard's Forest , Worth Forest, Ashdown Forest and Dallington Forest . The forests of
5777-548: The Weald were often used as a place of refuge and sanctuary. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates events during the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Sussex when the native Britons (whom the Anglo-Saxons called Welsh ) were driven from the coastal towns into the recesses of the forest for sanctuary,: A.D. 477. This year came Ælle to Britain, with his three sons, Cymen, and Wlenking, and Cissa , in three ships; landing at
5886-539: The Weald": The game of cricket may have originated prior to the 13th century in the Weald . The related game of stoolball is still popular in the Weald, it was originally played mainly by women's teams, but since the formation of the Sussex league at the beginning of the 20th century it has been played by both men and women. Several other areas in southern England have the name "Weald", including North Weald in Essex , and Harrow Weald in north-west London . "Wold"
5995-486: The Weald, and it is well-mapped recreationally, covered by routes from: Neither the thin infertile sands of the High Weald or the wet sticky clays of the Low Weald are suited to intensive arable farming and the topography of the area often increases the difficulties. There are limited areas of fertile greensand which can be used for intensive vegetable growing, as in the valley of the Western Rother . Historically
6104-414: The Weald. Sir Winston Churchill , British statesman and a prolific writer himself, did much of his writing at his country house, Chartwell , near Westerham , which has extensive views over the Weald. The view from the house was of crucial importance to Churchill; he once remarked, "I bought Chartwell for that view." In the early 21st century, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council promoted "Seven Wonders of
6213-565: The Weald. The entire Weald was originally heavily forested. According to the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , the Weald measured 120 miles (193 km) or longer by 30 miles (48 km) in the Saxon era, stretching from Lympne , near Romney Marsh in Kent, to the Forest of Bere or even the New Forest in Hampshire. The area was sparsely inhabited and inhospitable, being used mainly as
6322-413: The Winnie-the-Pooh stories is essentially man-made: in the absence of human intervention, heathlands such as Ashdown's are quickly taken over by scrub and trees. Ashdown's heathlands date back to medieval times, and quite possibly earlier. Two elements were important in shaping this landscape: the local population of commoners, who exploited the forest's resources over many centuries; and the iron industry of
6431-417: The Year of the Tree. Important populations of heath and woodland birds are found on the forest, notably Dartford warbler Sylvia undata (the forest has all-year resident populations of this, Britain's scarcest heathland bird species, which has seen a resurgence since the early 1990s) and European nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus . Because of this, it has been designated as a Special Protection Area and it
6540-417: The area had the name Andredes weald , meaning "the forest of Andred", the latter derived from Anderida , the Roman name of present-day Pevensey . The area is also referred to in early English texts as Andredesleage , where the second element, leage, is another Old English word for "woodland", represented by the modern leigh . The adjective for "Weald" is "wealden". The Weald is the eroded remains of
6649-432: The area of cereals grown has varied greatly with changes in prices, increasing during the Napoleonic Wars and during and since World War II . About 60% of the High Weald farmed land is grassland, with about 20% being arable. The Weald has its own breed of cattle, called the Sussex , although the breed has been as numerous in Kent and parts of Surrey. Bred from the strong hardy oxen, which continued to be used to plough
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#17327658490056758-411: The boar in Hampstead . In 1216 during the First Barons' War , a guerilla force of archers from the Weald, led by William of Cassingham (nicknamed Willikin of the Weald), ambushed the French occupying army led by Prince Louis near Lewes and drove them to the coast at Winchelsea . The timely arrival of a French fleet allowed the French forces to narrowly escape starvation. William was later granted
6867-426: The clay soils of the Low Weald longer than in most places, these red beef cattle were highly praised by Arthur Young in his book Agriculture of Sussex when visiting Sussex in the 1790s. William Cobbett commented on finding some of the finest cattle on some of the region's poorest subsistence farms on the High Weald. Pigs, which were kept by most households in the past, were able to be fattened in autumn on acorns in
6976-446: The conservators, treat the forest as synonymous and co-terminous with this residual common land; this can lead to confusion: according to one authority " when people speak of Ashdown Forest, they may mean either a whole district of heaths and woodland that includes many private estates to which there is no public access, or they may be talking of the [common land] where the public are free to roam ". Most of today's common land lies within
7085-428: The discontinuation of traditional management techniques, such as grazing and burning, that mediated the landscapes. Some are also threatened by urban sprawl . Anthropogenic heathlands are maintained artificially by a combination of grazing and periodic burning (known as swailing), or (rarely) mowing; if not so maintained, they are rapidly recolonised by forest or woodland. The recolonising tree species will depend on what
7194-486: The extensive oak woods. In his novel Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man , the poet and novelist Siegfried Sassoon refers to "the agricultural serenity of the Weald widespread in the delicate hazy sunshine". Viticulture has expanded quite rapidly across the Weald, where the climate and soil is well suited to the growing of grapes, with over 20 vineyards now in the Wealden district alone The Weald has largely maintained its wooded character, with woodland still covering 23% of
7303-453: The forest alongside the many deer that were kept for aristocratic sport and the provision of venison . Note that forest does not have the modern meaning of "heavily wooded". Medieval hunting forests like Ashdown consisted of a mixture of heath, woodland and other habitats in which a variety of game could flourish, and where deer in particular could find both open pasture for browsing and woodland thickets for protective cover. Ashdown Forest
7412-466: The forest assumed its present-day shape when just over half its then 13,991 acres (5,662 ha) was assigned for private enclosure and improvement, while the remainder, about 6,400 acres (2,600 ha), was set aside as common land. Much of the latter was distributed in a rather fragmentary way around the periphery of the forest close to existing settlements and smallholdings ( see map ). Many present-day references to Ashdown Forest, including those made by
7521-484: The forest has grown sharply in the last three decades, in-common with deer herds elsewhere in England, and they now number in their thousands. Also present are roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ), the only native deer still roaming the forest, and two recently-introduced Asian species, the "barking deer", or muntjac ( Muntiacus muntjak ), and the sika ( Cervus nippon ). Many deer are involved in collisions with motor vehicles on local roads, especially as they move around
7630-460: The forest to feed at dawn and dusk, and many are killed. In 2009, forest rangers dealt with 244 deer casualties, compared with 266 the year before; however, this is likely to be a significantly low estimate, as the rangers cannot deal with all the accidents that occur. The forest conservators have identified a need to reduce the deer population and have begun working with neighbouring private landowners on measures to cull them. Exmoor ponies graze on
7739-418: The forest was its "openness". Most visitors (85%) coming by car travelled 10 km or less and there were 62 dogs for every 100 visitors. Heath Heaths are widespread worldwide but are fast disappearing and considered a rare habitat in Europe. They form extensive and highly diverse communities across Australia in humid and sub-humid areas where fire regimes with recurring burning are required for
7848-427: The forest's 1,500 ha of heathland, to be created in the south and west chases to allow commoners to graze their livestock in safety. The enclosure of the common lands of the forest with fencing to enable grazing was and remains somewhat controversial with some members of the public. Exploring alternatives to enclosure, the conservators undertook a close-shepherded grazing pilot project from 2007 to 2010 with funding from
7957-465: The forest, 40% of its area Most of the woodland on the common land of the forest is young and contains few older trees; there is little ancient woodland , defined as woodland that has been continuously wooded since 1600. Almost all the latter that exists within the medieval forest pale is found on land that was set aside in the 1693 division of the forest for private ownership and exploitation. Some wooded ghylls however do contain older trees and there are
8066-555: The forest, which flourished in the 16th century. The commoners played an important role in maintaining the forest as a predominantly heathland area by exercising their rights of common to exploit its resources in a variety of ways: by grazing livestock such as pigs and cattle, which suppressed the growth of trees and scrub; by cutting trees for firewood and for other uses; by cutting dead bracken, fern and heather for use as bedding for their livestock in winter; by periodically burning areas of heathland to maintain pasture; and so on. At times,
8175-514: The habitats and species of Sussex. The areas covered by the statutory designations are not identical to and are generally larger than the area of forest administered by the conservators. The SSSI covers 3,144 hectares (12.1 sq mi), mainly because, in addition to the forest land covered by the conservators, it also includes the Ministry of Defence's Pippingford Park Dry Training Area, accounting for 11% (346 hectares (1.3 sq mi)) of
8284-763: The heathland have given way to open spots of pure sand and sand dunes , with a local climate that, even in Europe, can rise to temperatures of 50 °C (122 °F) in summer, drying the sand spot bordering the heathland and further raising its vulnerability for wildfires. Referring to heathland in England, Oliver Rackham says, "Heaths are clearly the product of human activities and need to be managed as heathland; if neglected they turn into woodland". The conservation value of these human-made heaths has become much more appreciated due to their historical cultural value as habitats; consequently, most heathlands are protected. However they are also threatened by tree incursion because of
8393-502: The heathland, to enable the flock to graze without requiring close supervision by a shepherd. Ashdown Forest is an area of European ecological importance. It is designated by the UK government as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Protection Area (SPA), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Nature Conservation Review site. It lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty . An area of 103 hectares
8502-557: The high Greensand Ridge escarpment that rises prominently to the north, and, on the horizon, the chalk escarpments of the North Downs and South Downs (see diagram, right). The Ashdown Formation is the lowest (oldest) layer of the Hastings Beds , which comprise (in sequence) the Ashdown Formation , Wadhurst Clay Formation , and Tunbridge Wells Sand Formation , and which are now thought to be predominantly fluvial flood-plain deposits. The Hastings Beds in turn represent
8611-467: The highest sandy ridge-top at the centre of the High Weald, is a former royal deer-hunting forest created by the Normans and said to be the largest remaining part of Andredesweald . There are centres of settlement, the largest of which are Horsham , Burgess Hill , East Grinstead , Haywards Heath , Tonbridge , Tunbridge Wells , Crowborough ; and the area along the coast from Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea to Rye and Hythe . The geological map shows
8720-455: The iron mills, and the forest digged for Irne [iron] by which man and beast be in jeopardy". This ravaging of the forest's woodlands was later mitigated by the adoption of coppice management for the provision of sustainable supplies of charcoal. The impact of the industry on the forest, although significant, was however ultimately short-lived, as it died out in the 17th century. The open heathland landscape of Ashdown Forest described by Cobbett in
8829-530: The land for which they have statutory responsibility, the area of Ashdown Forest is 2,472 hectares (9.5 sq mi). The underlying geology of Ashdown Forest is mostly sandstone, predominantly the Lower Cretaceous Ashdown Formation . This forms a layer varying from 500 to 700 feet (150 to 210 m) thick, consists of fine-grained, silty interbedded sandstones and siltstones with subordinate amounts of shale and mudstone. It
8938-409: The large boundary defined by its medieval pale. There are however a number of villages situated on the edge of the forest adjacent to the pale or close to it. These include Nutley , Fairwarp, Danehill and Maresfield to the south and Forest Row and Hartfield to the north. The town of Crowborough abuts the forest on its eastern side while the town of East Grinstead lies 3 miles (4.8 km) to
9047-545: The late 15th and 16th centuries, following the introduction of the blast furnace in the 1490s, which led to a huge demand for charcoal. For example, large-scale tree cutting took place in the south of the forest to feed the iron works of the cannon maker Ralph Hogge . The loss of trees caused such concern for the Crown that as early as 1520 it was lamented that "much of the King's woods were cut down and coled [turned into charcoal] for
9156-619: The maintenance of the heathlands. Even more diverse though less widespread heath communities occur in Southern Africa . Extensive heath communities can also be found in the Texas chaparral , New Caledonia , central Chile , and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea . In addition to these extensive heath areas, the vegetation type is also found in scattered locations across all continents, except Antarctica . Heathland
9265-433: The medieval pale, although one tract, near Chelwood Beacon , acquired quite recently by the forest conservators, extends outside. The conservators have acquired other tracts in recent years as suitable opportunities have arisen, for example at Chelwood Vachery , as part of a policy to extend the amount of land that they regulate and protect within the pale. According to the definition used by the conservators, which relates to
9374-473: The monarchy and nobility for hunting into Tudor times, including notably Henry VIII , who had a hunting lodge at Bolebroke Castle , Hartfield and who courted Anne Boleyn at nearby Hever Castle . Ashdown Forest has a rich archaeological heritage. It contains much evidence of prehistoric human activity, with the earliest evidence of human occupation dating back to 50,000 years ago. There are important Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Romano-British remains. The forest
9483-657: The more important when set against the large-scale loss of English lowland heathland over the last 200 years; within the county of East Sussex , heathland has shrunk by 50% over the last 200 years, and most of what remains is in Ashdown Forest. Ashdown Forest is noted for its heathland plants and flowers, such as the marsh gentian , but it also provides other distinctive or unusual plant habitats. The extensive areas of dry heath are dominated by ling ( Calluna vulgaris ), bell heather ( Erica cinerea ) and dwarf gorse ( Ulex minor ). Important lichen communities include Pycnothelia papillaria . Common bracken ( Pteridium aquilinum )
9592-472: The more sedate, but busy A21 trunk road to Hastings is still beset with traffic delays, despite having had some new sections. Five railways once crossed the Weald, now reduced to three. Building them provided the engineers with difficulties in crossing the terrain, with the hard sandstone adding to their problems. The Brighton Main Line followed the same route as its road predecessors: although it necessitated
9701-454: The most prominent part of the High Weald , is surrounded by successive concentric bands of younger sandstones and clays, and finally chalk. These form hills or vales depending on their relative resistance to erosion. Consequently, what the viewer sees when looking north or south across the Weald from the heights of Ashdown Forest is a series of successively younger geological formations. These include heavily wooded lowlands formed on Weald Clay ,
9810-649: The north-west. Ashdown Forest does not seem to have existed as a distinct entity before the Norman Conquest of 1066, nor is it mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The area that was to become known as Ashdown Forest was merely an unidentified part of the Forest of Pevensel, a Norman creation within the Rape of Pevensey that had been carved out of a much larger area of woodland, the Weald , which itself
9919-424: The numbers of livestock being grazed on the forest was very large: at the end of the 13th century the commoners were turning out 2,000-3,000 cattle, alongside the 1,000-2,000 deer that were also present, while according to a 1293 record the forest was being grazed by more than 2,700 swine. A second important factor was the heavy depletion of the forest's woodlands by the local iron industry, which grew very rapidly in
10028-477: The oldest part of the series of Cretaceous geological formations that make up the Weald-Artois Anticline, comprising (in sequence, from oldest to youngest) the Hastings Beds , Weald Clay , Lower Greensand , Gault , Upper Greensand, and Chalk. The anticline, which stretches from South East England into northern France, and is breached by the English Channel , was created soon after the end of
10137-478: The original communities by the addition of the suffix " -den ": for example, Tenterden was the area used by the people of Thanet . Permanent settlements in much of the Weald developed much later than in other parts of lowland Britain, although there were as many as one hundred furnaces and forges operating by the later 16th century, employing large numbers of people. In the 12th century, the Weald still extended so far that citizens of London could hunt wild bull and
10246-702: The overall area (one of the highest levels in England) and the proportion is considerably higher in some central parts. The sandstones of the Wealden rocks are usually acidic, often leading to the development of acidic habitats such as heathland , the largest remaining areas of which are in Ashdown Forest and near Thursley . Although common in France , the wild boar became extinct in Great Britain by
10355-537: The power for the watermills , blast furnaces and hammers of the iron industry and the cloth mills. The M25 , M26 and M20 motorways all use the Vale of Holmesdale to the north, and therefore run along or near the northern edge of the Weald. The M23 / A23 road to Brighton , uses the western, narrower, part of the Weald where there are stream headwaters, crossing it from north to south. Other roads take similar routes, although they often have long hills and many bends:
10464-550: The proportion of heathland at 60% and to returning it to 'favourable' condition. Their efforts are being funded under a ten-year Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement with Natural England ; signed in August 2006, it is the largest such scheme in South East England. The conservators have taken various steps to prevent natural regeneration of woodland. Regular mowing of bracken is carried out: an area of 266 ha out of
10573-410: The rebellious barons, the Weald's natives – mostly operating as archers – opposed the royalist advance, using guerrilla warfare . Even though they were unable to stop the army, their attacks inflicted substantial losses on the royalists. In retribution, King Henry ordered the execution of any Weald archers who were captured alive, for instance beheading 300 after a local shot his cook. The king also fined
10682-491: The red deer had disappeared completely from the forest while fallow deer numbers had sharply declined. The depletion of the woodlands (which provided deer with cover), the deterioration of the forest pale (which allowed them to escape) and the depredations of poachers were all factors in their decline. Fallow deer returned in the 20th century, probably escapees from the Sackville estate, Buckhurst Park . The population roaming
10791-656: The resultant clearance of the forest. With the Iron Age came the first use of the Weald as an industrial area. Wealden sandstones contain ironstone , and with the additional presence of large amounts of timber for making charcoal for fuel, the area was the centre of the Wealden iron industry from then, through the Roman times , until the last forge was closed in 1813. The index to the Ordnance Survey Map of Roman Britain lists 33 iron mines, and 67% of these are in
10900-445: The settlements are mentioned in the Domesday Book ; however Goudhurst's church dates from the early 12th century or before and Wadhurst was big enough by the mid-13th century to be granted a royal charter permitting a market to be held. Before then, the Weald was used as summer grazing land, particularly for pannage by inhabitants of the surrounding areas. Many places within the Weald have retained names from this time, linking them to
11009-414: The tiny pockets of heathland in Europe are extremely depauperate with a flora consisting primarily of heather ( Calluna vulgaris ), heath ( Erica species) and gorse ( Ulex species). The bird fauna of heathlands are usually cosmopolitan species of the region. In the depauperate heathlands of Europe, bird species tend to be more characteristic of the community, and include Montagu's harrier and
11118-449: The wet areas are found several species of sphagnum moss together with bog asphodel ( Narthecium ossifragum ), common cotton-grass ( Eriophorum angustifolium ) and specialities such as marsh gentian ( Gentiana pneumonanthe ), ivy-leaved bell flower ( Wahlenbergia hederacea ), white-beaked sedge ( Rhynchospora alba ) and marsh club moss ( Lycopodiella inundata ). The marsh gentian, noted for its bright blue trumpet-like flowers, has
11227-414: The woodlands can also be found wood anemone ( Anemone nemorosa ) and common wood sorrel ( Oxalis acetosella ). Forest streams, often lined by alder trees such as Alnus glutinosa , and grey sallow Salix cinerea , birch and oak, cut through the soft sandstone forming steep-sided valleys (ghylls) that are sheltered from winter frosts and remain humid in summer, creating conditions more familiar in
11336-591: Was a part of the prehistoric forest cover of the British landmass, the British wildwood . The first recorded reference to Ashdown Forest by name is in the period 1100–1130, when Henry I confirmed the right of monks to use a road across the forest of "Essessdone", a right which the monks claimed to have held since the Conquest. "Ashdown Forest" consists of words from two different languages. The first word, Ashdown ,
11445-441: Was enough time in the history of the Earth to uphold his principles of evolution. He assumed the rate of erosion was around one inch per century and calculated the age of the Weald at around 300 million years. Were that true, he reasoned, the Earth itself must be much older. In 1862, William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) published a paper "On the age of the sun's heat", in which – unaware of the process of solar fusion – he calculated
11554-409: Was identified after the fossil collector and illustrator Mary Ann Mantell supposedly unearthed some fossilised teeth by a road in Sussex in 1822. Her husband, the geologist Gideon Mantell sent them to various experts and this important find led to the discovery of dinosaurs. The area contains significant reserves of shale oil , totalling 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the Wealden basin according to
11663-469: Was inspired by Ashdown Forest , near Milne's country home at Hartfield . John Evelyn (1620–1706), whose family estate was Wotton House on the River Tillingbourne near Dorking , Surrey, was an essayist, diarist, and early author of botany, gardening and geography. The second half of E. M. Forster's A Room with a View takes place at the protagonist's family home, "Windy Corner", in
11772-412: Was legally set aside by the crown for hunting and protected its sovereign right to all wild animals, commoners were still able to exercise—within strict limits—many of their traditional or customary rights, for example, to pasture their swine in the woods or collect wind-blown branches and trees. Thus, in the 13th century, the commoners of Ashdown were recorded as grazing large numbers of swine and cattle on
11881-544: Was the centre of a nationally important iron industry on two occasions, during the Roman occupation of Britain and in the Tudor period when, in 1496, England's first blast furnace was built at Newbridge, near Coleman's Hatch, marking the beginning of Britain's modern iron and steel industry. In 1693, more than half the forest was taken into private hands, with the remainder set aside as common land. The latter today covers 9.5 square miles (25 km; 6,100 acres; 2,500 ha) and
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