Ashdown Forest
Encyclopedia
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of tranquil open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
. It is situated some 30 miles (48 km) south of London in the county of East Sussex
, England
. Rising to an altitude of 223 metres (731.6 ft) above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald
to the chalk escarpments of the North Downs
and South Downs
on the horizon.
Ashdown Forest's origins lie 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 some 20 square miles (5,180 ha). 34 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 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 Ann 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 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 (2,460.5 ha) and is 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 is famous as the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh
stories written by A. A. Milne
, who 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.
, 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 the north-west.
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
. The first recorded reference to Ashdown Forest by name is in the period 1100-1130 AD, 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, is of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is probably derived from the personal name of an individual or people called Aesca, combined with dún, Old English for hill or down, hence Aesca's dún—the hill of Aesca. 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, 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 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 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 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.
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 (5,309.5 ha). The original embankment and ditch, albeit now rather degraded and overgrown, can still be discerned in places today.
In 1693 the forest assumed its present-day shape when just over half its then 13991 acres (5,662 ha) was assigned for private enclosure and improvement, while the remainder, about 6400 acres (2,590 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 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 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. According to the definition used by the conservators, which relates to the land for which they have statutory responsibility, the area of Ashdown Forest is 2472 hectares (9.5 sq mi).
The underlying geology of Ashdown Forest is mostly sandstone, predominantly the Lower Cretaceous Ashdown Sand formation. The latter, which forms a layer varying from 500 feet (152.4 m) to 700 feet (213.4 m) thick, consists of fine-grained, silty interbedded sandstones and siltstones with subordinate amounts of shale and mudstone. It is the oldest geological formation that crops out in the Weald (apart from some small Jurassic
outcrops in east Sussex).
The Ashdown Sand 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, 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
, 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).
Ashdown Sand is the lowest (oldest) layer of the Hastings Beds
, which comprise (in sequence) Ashdown Sand, Wadhurst Clay, and Tunbridge Wells Sand, and which are now thought to be predominantly fluvial flood-plain deposits. The Hastings Beds in turn represent 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 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 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.
The Forest predominantly consists of lowland heathland. Of the 2472 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 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.
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. Bracken Pteridium aquilinum 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
sp. Salicaceae and heath spotted orchid
Dactylorhiza maculata.
In 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 a flowering season lasting from July well into October and is found in about a dozen colonies.
Gorse Ulex europaeus, silver birch Betula pendula, pendunculate 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, the 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 the woodlands can also be found wood anemone
Anemone nemorosa and common wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella.
trees Alnus glutinosa, 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 the Atlantic-facing western coastal regions of Britain. Uncommon bryophyte
s 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.
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 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), Millenium Clump and Friends Clump, planted in 1973 to mark the Year of the Tree.
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 Nightjar
Caprimulgus europaeus. Because of this, it has been designated as a Special Protection Area
and it is a popular destination for bird-watchers.
The Forest contains four main bird habitats:
) have been recorded, the scarcer among them being the Black Darter
, Brilliant Emerald and Small Red Damselfly
. It is also an important home for 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.
, an essential part of Wealden culture as long as 6-8,000 years ago, and Fallow deer
, already present in Sussex in the Romano-British era and particularly favoured by the Normans for hunting, were both hunted in the forest until the 17th century. By the end of the 17th century, however, the Red deer had disappeared completely from the forest while Fallow deer had declined to very low numbers. 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 as a result of escapes from a local deer park at Buckhurst. The population roaming 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
(the only native deer roaming the forest) and two recently introduced species, Muntjac
and Sika deer
.
Many deer are involved in collisions with motor vehicles on local roads as they move around the Forest to feed at dawn and dusk, and many are killed. In 2009 the Forest rangers dealt with 244 deer casualties compared with 266 the year before. However, this is likely to be a significant underestimate as the rangers do not deal with all the casualties that occur. The forest conservators have identified a need to reduce the deer population and has been working with major neighbouring private landowners on measures to cull them.
::
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 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 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 the 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, 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 local iron industry, which grew very rapidly in 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 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.
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 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 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 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 ha (1359 acre) fenced enclosure, representing about one-third of the Forest's 1500 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 2007-2010 with funding from 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 over-grown 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 the heathland, to enable the flock to graze without requiring close supervision by a shepherd.
(SSSI), and as a Special Protection Area
(SPA) and a Special Area of Conservation
(SAC). Ashdown Forest is part of the European Union's Natura 2000
Network.
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 the habitats and species of Sussex.
Ashdown Forest lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
.
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 3144 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 the SSSI, Hindleap Warren, Broadstone Warren, and Sussex Wildlife Trust's Old Lodge Local Nature Reserve, which covers 76 hectare (0.293437640530327 sq mi). The SPA covers 3207 hectares (12.4 sq mi) while the SAC covers 2729 hectares (10.5 sq mi).
Despite such large numbers of visitors, the Forest has retained its celebrated tranquillity and sense of openness. The commons are freely open to the public, who are attracted by the large, elevated expanse of unspoiled heaths and woodlands where they may walk, picnic or simply sit while taking in the glorious views. Various bye-laws passed by the Conservators help protect the Forest environment for the public good, prohibiting such activities as, for example, mountain biking, off-road driving of motor vehicles, camping, and the lighting of fires.
, which provides access from the M25
and M23
motorways. The Conservators have provided 48 unobtrusive car parks to discourage drivers from parking their vehicles on roadsides. The nearest railway station is at East Grinstead
, which receives frequent train services from London. Two bus services cross the forest: the 261 service from East Grinstead railway station to Uckfield stops at Nutley, Chelwood Gate, Wych Cross, the Ashdown Forest Centre and Colemans Hatch (two-hourly; no service on Sundays or public holidays), while the 270 service from East Grinstead railway station to Haywards Heath stops at Wych Cross and Chelwood Gate (hourly service, every day). London Gatwick Airport is about 25 minutes away by car.
, Forest Row Community Centre and Perryhill Orchards, Hartfield. The Forest's principal tourism organisation is the Ashdown Forest Tourism Association.
and Wealdway
cross the forest and meet near Old Lodge. The Wealdway passes through Five Hundred Acre wood, the Hundred Acre Wood
of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. The Ashdown Forest Centre produces a series of leaflets detailing interesting walks in various parts of the forest, which may also be downloaded from its website.
There are 82 miles (132 km) of tracks on the Forest that may be ridden by horse once an annual permit has been obtained from the Conservators. The main horse-riding organisation is the Ashdown Forest Riding Association, which has around 200 members.
The Forest, with its attractive landscapes, vistas and hills, is a popular destination for road cyclists, races and cyclosportives such as the Hell of the Ashdown. Former Tour de France rider Sean Yates
lives at Forest Row
and has taken Lance Armstrong
training here. Off-road cycling and mountain biking is prohibited for environmental reasons, except along public bridleways. A local pressure group is campaigning for this ban to be lifted.
The Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club occupies a large area of leasehold land in the northern part of the Forest near Forest Row. It is a traditional members' club founded in 1888 at the instigation of Earl de la Warr, Lord of the Manor, who became its first president. Its two 18-hole heathland courses are notable for the absence of bunkers (at the insistence of the Conservators). As elsewhere in Ashdown Forest, trees and bracken scrub have invaded following the cessation of grazing and decreased wood cutting by the Commoners, and the club is working with the Conservators to restore the golf courses to their original heathland character.
The principal hotel within the Forest is the Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club, a listed 19th century mansion house set in 186 acre (0.75271596 km²).
, which stands just north of the Nutley to Duddleswell road, is thought to be about 300 years old and is a rare example of an open-trestle post mill (the whole body of the mill can be rotated on its central post to face the wind). It has been restored to full working order and is open to the public. It is within easy walking distance of Friend's Clump car-park.
who were killed when it crashed in the forest on the morning of 31 July 1941 on its return from a raid on Cologne during World War II. The memorial, which is a simple stone-walled enclosure on the heathland west of Duddleswell, shelters a white cross surrounded by a tiny garden of remembrance and was erected by the mother of Sergeant P.V.R. Sutton, who was aged 24 at the time of his death. A short public service takes place each year on Remembrance Sunday when a wreath is laid by an Ashdown Forest Ranger, at the request of Mrs Sutton, together with one from the Ashdown Forest Riding Association. The Ashdown Forest Centre has published a circular walk to the memorial, starting from Hollies car park.
main road, Ashdown Forest Llama Park
breeds and sells llamas and alpacas, and operates as a visitor attraction to educate the public about these animals. The park has a gift shop, coffee shop and tourist information point for which there is no admission charge.
It is not known precisely when the pale was built. Forest management accounts of 1283 refer to the cost of repairing the pale and building new lengths. However, the granting of the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to John of Gaunt in 1372 and its renaming as Lancaster Great Park (see below) implies that the Forest may only have been recently enclosed (chase denoted an open hunting ground, park an enclosed one).
The condition of the Forest pale seems to have deteriorated significantly during the Tudor period. This coincided with, and may be partly linked to, the rapid growth under the Tudors of the local iron-making industry with its huge demand for raw materials in and around Ashdown Forest, such as charcoal and ironstone. This ultimately led to an appeal to King James, soon after his accession to the throne, for Ashdown's forest fences to be repaired in order to preserve the King's game. However, the pale seems to have fallen into almost complete disrepair by the end of the 17th century.
The bank and ditch associated with the pale are still visible in places around Ashdown Forest today, for example at Legsheath and adjacent to the car-park for Pooh Sticks Bridge on Chuck Hatch Lane.
Ashdown Forest is famous as the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, written by A. A. Milne
. The first book, Winnie-the-Pooh
, was published in 1926 with illustrations by EH Shepard. The second book, The House at Pooh Corner
, also illustrated by Shepard, was published in 1928. These hugely popular stories were set in and inspired by Ashdown Forest.
Alan Milne, a writer who was born and lived in London, bought a country retreat for himself and his family at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield
, East Sussex
, in 1925. This old farmhouse was situated on the banks of a tributary of the River Medway
and lay just beyond the northern boundary of Ashdown Forest, about a mile from the ancient Forest entrance at Chuck Hatch. The family would stay at Cotchford Farm at weekends and in the Easter and summer holidays. It was easy to walk from the farmhouse up onto the Forest, and these walks were frequently family occasions which would see Milne, his wife, Dorothy, his son, Christopher Robin
, and his son's nanny, Olive, going "in single file threading the narrow paths that run through the heather". Christopher, who was an only child born in 1920 and whose closest childhood relationship was with his nanny, spent his early years happily exploring the Forest. It is the Ashdown Forest landscape, and Christopher's reports of his experiences and discoveries there, that provided inspiration and material for A.A. Milne's stories. As Christopher Milne wrote later: "Anyone who has read the stories knows the Forest and doesn't need me to describe it. Pooh’s Forest and Ashdown Forest are identical".
Several of the sites described in the books can be easily identified, although their names have been changed. For example, Five Hundred Acre Wood, which is a dense beech wood that was originally sold off from the Forest in 1678 and is today privately-owned, and which Christopher would sometimes walk through to reach the Forest, became Hundred Acre Wood
. The hilltop of Gills Lap, crowned by pine trees and visible from miles around, became Galleon's Lap. The North Pole and Gloomy Place are in Wren’s Warren valley, a short walk north-east of Gills Lap, as is The Dark and Mysterious Forest.
Furthermore, the landscapes depicted in Shepard’s illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which are very evocative of Ashdown Forest, can in many cases be matched up to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence. Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other Forest scenes are now exhibited at the V&A Museum
in London.
A free leaflet, “Pooh Walks from Gills Lap”, which is available from the Ashdown Forest Centre and downloadable from its website, describes a walk that takes in many locations familiar from the Pooh stories including Galleon's Lap, The Enchanted Place, the Heffalump Trap and Lone Pine, North Pole, 100 Aker Wood and Eeyore’s Sad and Gloomy Place.
A memorial plaque to Milne and Shepard can be found at Gills Lap. Its heading is a quotation from the Pooh stories: "...and by and by they came to an enchanted place on the very top of the Forest called Galleons Lap". The dedication reads: "Here at Gills Lap are commemorated A.A. Milne 1882-1956 and E.H. Shepard 1879-1976 who collaborated in the creation of "Winnie-the-Pooh" and so captured the magic of Ashdown Forest and gave it to the world".
Pooh Sticks Bridge, which is open to the public, lies outside the Forest on the northern edge of Posingford Wood, near Chuck Hatch. A path leads to the bridge from a car-park on Chuck Hatch Lane, just off the B2026 Maresfield to Hartfield road. The original bridge was built in 1907, restored in 1979 and completely rebuilt in 1999. So popular is the game of Poohsticks
that the surrounding area has been denuded of twigs and small branches by the many visitors.
Pooh Corner, situated on the High Street in Hartfield village, sells Winnie-the-Pooh related products and offers information for visitors.
Prior to the conquest, Ashdown seems simply to have been an unnamed part of the vast, sparsely populated, and in places dense and impenetrable woodland known to the Anglo-Saxons as Andredes weald ("the forest of Andred"), from which the present-day Weald
derives its name. The Weald, of which Ashdown Forest is the largest remaining part, stretched for 30 miles (48.3 km) between the chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs and for over 90 miles (144.8 km) from east to west from Kent into Hampshire.
Ashdown Forest is not mentioned in the Domesday Book
of 1086 but, as part of the forest of Pevensel, the sub-division of the Weald that the Normans created within the Rape of Pevensey
, it had already been granted by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain
. This rape was strategically and economically important, extending as it did inland northwards from the English Channel coast towards London, and was guarded, as was the case with the other six Sussex rapes, by a castle. It was awarded to Robert, along with several hundred manors across England, in recognition of his support for William during the Norman conquest of England. Two important conditions applied to a forest like Pevensel: the king could keep and hunt deer there, while the commoners - tenant farmers who had smallholdings near the forest - could continue to graze their livestock there and cut wood for fuel and bracken for livestock bedding.
1095 - death of Robert de Mortain. Ashdown is then held by the lords of Pevensey castle - a succession of high status members of the Norman and Plantagenet aristocracy, including several Queens of England - for most of the next 200 years.
1100-30 - Ashdown Forest is first referred to by name when Henry I confirms that monks can continue to use a road across the forest of "Essendone". The monks' claim that they have held the right since the Conquest implies the area was known by this name at least as far back as then.
1268 - in the reign of Henry III
, Ashdown Forest is vested in the Crown in perpetuity. The forest was subsequently used for deer hunting by Edward II
, who built a hunting lodge near Nutley that was later to be used by John of Gaunt.
1282 - first documentary references to the forest pales appear in accounts prepared by a ranger recording the costs of timber that have been cut;
1372 - Edward III
grants the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. It becomes known as Lancaster Great Park. The park then reverts to the Crown along with the rest of the Duchy of Lancaster after John of Gaunt's death in 1399. But for the next 300 years, until 1672, the forest is still referred to as Lancaster Great Park.
1662 - Lancaster Great Park is disafforested by Charles II, giving free rein to the Earl of Bristol to make 'improvements'.
1693 - Ashdown Forest (the former Lancaster Great Park) is divided up, and it assumes its present-day shape. Just over half of it - in portions of widely varying sizes, but with the largest ones tending to be located towards the centre of the forest - is allotted for 'inclosure and improvement' by private interests. The rest is retained as common land for use by those local landowners and tenants who possess rights of common.
1881 - the commoners of Ashdown Forest reach a successful conclusion to their defence of a lawsuit brought by the Lord of the Manor which contested the nature and extent of their rights of common on the forest (known as the "The Great Ashdown Forest Case").
1885 - an Act of Parliament introduces bye-laws to regulate and protect the forest, and a Board of Conservators is established.
1988 - the freehold of the forest is acquired by East Sussex County Council from the executors of the Lord of the Manor, forestalling the possibility that the remaining common land of the forest would be broken up and sold off into private hands.
, in 1660, it was in a state where "the whole forest [is] laid open and made waste". Attempts to enclose and improve the forest (for example, by introducing rabbit farming, or sowing crops) were however strongly opposed throughout by the local commoners, who claimed rights of common on the forest, having exercised them "from time out of mind", as well as by neighbouring estates who claimed right of pasture there.
In 1662 the forest was granted to one of Charles II
's closest allies, George Digby, Earl of Bristol, and it was formally disafforested to allow Bristol a free hand to improve it. His attempts to do so were however frustrated "by the crossness of the neighbourhood"; the fences he erected were thrown down and the crops he sowed were trampled by cattle. He defaulted on his rental payments to the Crown and left. Subsequent Lords of the Manor suffered similar opposition from the commoners. Compromise proposals were made to divide up the forest that would leave sufficient common land to meet the needs of commoners, while giving the rest up for improvement.
These unresolved tensions came to a head when, in 1689, a major landowner and 'Master of the Forest', Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, brought a legal suit against 133 commoners in the court of the Duchy of Lancaster. The court decided to appoint commissioners to divide up Ashdown Forest's 13991 acres (5,662 ha) in a way that would meet the needs of both defendants and plaintiffs. The commissioners made their award on 9 July 1693. They set aside 6400 acres (2,590 ha), mostly in the vicinity of farms and villages, as common land, where the commoners were granted sole right of pasturage and the right to cut birch, alder and willow (but no other trees). The commoners were however excluded forever from the rest of the forest, about 55 per cent of its area, which was assigned for "inclosure and improvement" (though it should be noted that substantial areas had already been enclosed by then, so in such cases the decree was merely confirming the status quo).
The land award of 1693 is largely responsible for shaping the map of Ashdown Forest today. The common land is highly fragmented and irregular in shape, broken up by many private enclosures, large and small. It tends to lie on the periphery of the forest near existing settlements. Some of the largest enclosures, such as Hindleap Warren, Prestridge Warren, Broadstone Warren and Crowborough Warren, mostly lying towards the centre of the forest, were used for a time for intensive rabbit farming. Some of these enclosures have today acquired interesting uses: Pippingford Park, in the very centre of the forest, has become an important military training area, Broadstone Warren is a scout camp, while Hindleap Warren is an outdoor education centre
Although the 1693 land award envisaged enclosure and improvement for profitable gain, the land it allotted to private exploitation has in fact largely remained uncultivated; this has helped Ashdown Forest to retain the appearance of being an extensive area of wild country that is so valued today. That said, there is nevertheless a visible contrast between the areas of common land, maintained by the Conservators, which are predominantly heathland, and the extensive privately-held lands, which are generally either quite heavily wooded or cleared for pasture.
On 13 October 1877 John Miles was seen on the forest cutting litter (heather and bracken for livestock bedding and other uses) on behalf of Bernard Hale, his employer and the owner of a local estate, by a keeper, George Edwards. Edwards was a well-known and unpopular local man who was acting as the representative of the Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell, the seventh Earl De La Warr
, who owned the land on which the forest stood. In a test case, the earl challenged the right of Hale to cut litter. Hale, who claimed ownership of his estate made him a commoner of the forest, argued that he was entitled to send his men onto the forest to cut and remove bracken, fern, heather and other plants. The earl maintained that the commoners' rights of pasturage and herbage granted under the 1693 decree only entitled them to graze their animals on the commons. At the end of a protracted and complicated legal case, the court ruled against the commoners, who included some of the wealthiest landowners in Sussex. They appealed, and their appeal was upheld in 1881, but only on one ground, that it had been a long-standing practice for commoners to cut and take away litter from the forest, and they were therefore entitled to continue to do so under the Prescription Act 1832.
Resolution of the case in favour of the commoners led directly to today's framework of forest governance, with the passing of the first Ashdown Forest Act in 1885 and the establishment of a Board of Conservators for the forest.
that raised £175,000, East Sussex County Council purchased the freehold of Ashdown Forest from the executors of the earl, who had died the previous February. The freehold was then vested by the council in a newly-created charitable trust, the Ashdown Forest Trust.
was the main iron-producing region of Britain, namely in the first 200 years of the Roman period (1st to 3rd centuries AD) and in the Tudor period (late 15th and 16th centuries). Ashdown was favoured by the widespread presence of iron-ore, extensive woodlands for the production of charcoal, and deep, steep-sided valleys (locally known as ghylls) that could be dammed to provide water power for furnaces and forges.
The Forest was the site of Britain's first blast furnace, at Newbridge, which began operation in 1496. It was constructed at the commission of Henry VII
for the production of heavy metalwork for gun carriages for his war against the Scots. The furnace was designed and operated by French immigrants who brought the technology over from northern France.
Spurred by the development of blast furnaces, the iron industry grew very rapidly during the 16th century and became noted for the casting of cannons and cannonballs for the English navy. The celebrated ironmaster and gunfounder Ralph Hogge
, who in 1543 made the first one-piece, cast-iron cannon in England at nearby Buxted
, drew his raw materials from the southern part of the Forest. However, the huge demand for raw materials and fuel, particularly charcoal, heavily depleted Ashdown Forest's woodlands, causing much concern and prompting commissions of enquiry by the King. In due course coppice management was used to ensure a more sustainable supply.
In the 17th century the industry declined and eventually died out as a result of competition from lower-cost iron-producing areas.
The earliest known trace of human activity in Ashdown Forest is a stone hand axe found near Gills Lap, which is thought to be about 50,000 years old. The vast majority of finds date from the Mesolithic (10,000-4,000 BC) and onwards into the modern era.
The London to Lewes Way
, one of three Roman roads
that connected London with the important Wealden iron industry
, crosses Ashdown Forest in a north-south direction, and would have been used to transport iron products from the Forest to London and the coast. The agger
of the road, whose foundations include iron slag, can be seen at Roman Road car park.
The forest is regulated and protected by an independent Board of Conservators established under the Ashdown Forest Act 1885. The creation of the board followed the resolution of the protracted 19th century dispute between the commoners and the 7th earl de la Warr over rights of common on the forest. The structure of the board, originally composed entirely of commoners, altered significantly during the 20th century. Currently, of its sixteen members, nine are appointed by East Sussex County Council (one of whom represents the Lord of the Manor, the Ashdown Forest Trust), two by Wealden District Council, and the remaining five are elected by the commoners, of whom four must be commoners. The day-to-day management of the forest is the responsibility of the Forest Superintendent, the Clerk to the Conservators, and a number of supporting staff, including forest rangers.
The conservators are required to act in accordance with a number of Acts of Parliament
pertaining to the forest, of which the latest, the Ashdown Forest Act 1974, states (Section 16):
A number of byelaws
have been passed by the conservators under the 1974 Act to protect the forest and to preserve its perceived special character, particularly its tranquillity. These include prohibitions on off-roading driving, mountain-biking, horse-riding (except by permit), camping, the lighting of fires, digging, and the dumping of rubbish.
Finding adequate funding for the regulation and conservation of the forest has been a persistent issue. The income of the conservators in 2009-10 was £751,000, of which almost half was accounted for by funding from the government's Higher Level Stewardship
(HLS) scheme, which requires the conservators to achieve certain objectives, such as restoring the heathlands to "favourable condition". Grants from the local authorities and the Ashdown Forest Trust accounted for another fifth. In 2009-10 there was a small surplus of income over expenditure (57% of which was staff costs). Cuts in local government expenditure and termination of HLS funding by 2016 present major challenges.
Large numbers of volunteers support the work of the conservators by undertaking conservation work in the forest. Many of these are recruited by the Friends of the Ashdown Forest, which has almost 1000 members. Fundraising by the Friends has helped towards the purchase of capital equipment for forest management such as motor vehicles and enabled the conservators to buy back parcels of land within the ancient pale for re-incorporation into the forest.
In 1994 the Board of Conservators, with the help of funding from East Surrey County Council, purchased 28 ha (69 acres) of woodland at Chelwood Vachery (an estate that dates back to at least 1229), including an early 20th century garden and lake system, after the estate was divided up and offered for sale by its owner. The land is now undergoing restoration as a forest garden and is open to the public.
The common land of Ashdown Forest, amounting to some 6400 acres (2,590 ha), consists of specific areas of the forest, registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965, which only those who possess particular rights of common - commoners - are entitled to use and exploit in certain specified ways. These common rights are attached to certain landholdings around the forest, not to individual people, and are passed on when properties are sold or inherited. Since 1885 the common land has been regulated and protected by a statutory Board of Conservators.
Contrary to widespread belief, a 'common' in England is not 'public land'. However, in the case of Ashdown Forest, the conservators have given the public open access to the common land, subject to compliance with bye-laws that largely aim to preserve the special character of the forest.
A right of common may be defined as:
On Ashdown Forest the rights of common have varied over time. Those that remain today, which are subject to local byelaws and are under the control of the conservators, are:
Today, to a varying degree, every property possessing common rights has some or all of these rights over the registered common land of the forest.
To become a commoner a person must acquire commonable land; conversely, a person selling a commonable property ceases to be a commoner. Where a commonable property is sold off in smaller portions, the commonable rights are apportioned in accordance with the area of each portion. All commoners are obliged to pay a Forest Rate (based on the area of commonable land held) to contribute towards the administration of the forest by the Board of Conservators, and they are entitled to elect five commoners' representatives to the Board.
A sharp decline in commoning after the end of World War II resulted in a rapid loss of the Forest's open heathland to scrub and trees, threatening the many specialised and rare plants and animals that depend on the heathland and jeopardising the Forests's famous open landscape with its magnificent vistas, so well captured in EH Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations. The Board of Conservators has responded by moving beyond its original administrative and regulatory functions to play a more active, interventionist role in combating the invasion of scrub and trees with the aim of restoring the heathland to a favourable condition.
, the 2002 version of The Four Feathers
, Under Suspicion
, Flyboys
and HBO/BBC
's mini-series Band of Brothers.
High Weald AONB
The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is situated in south-east England. Covering an area of , it extends across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in England and Wales...
. It is situated some 30 miles (48 km) south of London in the county of East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Rising to an altitude of 223 metres (731.6 ft) above sea level, its heights provide expansive vistas across the heavily wooded hills of the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
to the chalk escarpments of the North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
and South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
on the horizon.
Ashdown Forest's origins lie as a medieval hunting forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
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 some 20 square miles (5,180 ha). 34 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 the monarchy and nobility for hunting into Tudor times, including notably Henry VIII, who had a hunting lodge at Bolebroke Castle
Bolebroke Castle
Bolebroke Castle is a 15th century hunting lodge. Built around 1480, it is said to be the earliest brick-built building in Sussex. It is located north of the village of Hartfield, East Sussex. Henry VIII is said to have stayed at Bolebroke when he went hunting for wild boar and deer in nearby...
, Hartfield
Hartfield
Hartfield is a civil parish in East Sussex, England. Settlements within the parish include the village of Hartfield, Colemans Hatch, Hammerwood and Holtye, all lying on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest.-Geography:...
and who courted Ann Boleyn at nearby Hever Castle
Hever Castle
Hever Castle is located in the village of Hever near Edenbridge, Kent, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century...
.
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 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 (2,460.5 ha) and is 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
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
, as a Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...
for birds, and as a Special Area of Conservation
Special Area of Conservation
A Special Area of Conservation is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive , also known as the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora...
for its heathland habitats. It is part of the European Natura 2000
Natura 2000
Natura 2000 is an ecological network of protected areas in the territory of the European Union.-Origins:In May 1992, the governments of the European Communities adopted legislation designed to protect the most seriously threatened habitats and species across Europe. This legislation is called the...
network as it hosts some of Europe's most threatened species and habitats.
Ashdown Forest is famous as the setting for the Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
stories written by A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
, who lived on the northern edge of the forest and took his son, Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
, walking there. The artist E. H. Shepard
E. H. Shepard
Ernest Howard Shepard was an English artist and book illustrator. He was known especially for his human-like animals in illustrations for The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne....
drew on the landscapes of Ashdown Forest as inspiration for many of the illustrations he provided for the Pooh books.
Settlements
Ashdown Forest notably lacks any significant settlements within the 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 NutleyNutley, East Sussex
Nutley is a village in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It lies about north-east of Uckfield, the main road being on the A22. Nutley, Fairwarp and Maresfield together form the Maresfield civil parish....
, Fairwarp, Danehill
Danehill, East Sussex
Danehill is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located five miles north-east of Haywards Heath and on the edge of the Ashdown Forest...
and Maresfield
Maresfield
Maresfield is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village itself lies 1.5 miles north from Uckfield; the nearby villages of Nutley and Fairwarp; and the smaller settlements of Duddleswell and Horney Common; and parts of Ashdown Forest all lie within...
to the south and Forest Row
Forest Row
Forest Row is a village and relatively large civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located three miles south-east of East Grinstead.-History:...
and Hartfield
Hartfield
Hartfield is a civil parish in East Sussex, England. Settlements within the parish include the village of Hartfield, Colemans Hatch, Hammerwood and Holtye, all lying on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest.-Geography:...
to the north. The town of Crowborough
Crowborough
The highest point in the town is 242 metres above sea level. This summit is the highest point of the High Weald and second highest point in East Sussex . Its relative height is 159 m, meaning Crowborough qualifies as one of England's Marilyns...
abuts the forest on its eastern side while the town of East Grinstead
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
lies 3 miles (4.8 km) to the north-west.
Toponymy
Ashdown Forest does not seem to have existed as a distinct entity before the Norman Conquest of 1066 AD, nor is it mentioned in the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
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
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
that had been carved out of a much larger area of woodland, the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
. The first recorded reference to Ashdown Forest by name is in the period 1100-1130 AD, when Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
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, is of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is probably derived from the personal name of an individual or people called Aesca, combined with dún, Old English for hill or down, hence Aesca's dún—the hill of Aesca. 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, a harsh and much resented supplement to the common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
that was designed to protect, for the king's benefit, the beasts of the chase, such as deer and wild boar, and the vegetation 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 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 the forest alongside the many deer that were kept for aristocratic sport and the provision of venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
.
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.
Shape and extent
Ashdown Forest is shaped, roughly speaking, like an inverted triangle, some 7 miles (11.3 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 (5,309.5 ha). The original embankment and ditch, albeit now rather degraded and overgrown, can still be discerned in places today.
In 1693 the forest assumed its present-day shape when just over half its then 13991 acres (5,662 ha) was assigned for private enclosure and improvement, while the remainder, about 6400 acres (2,590 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 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 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. According to the definition used by the conservators, which relates to the land for which they have statutory responsibility, the area of Ashdown Forest is 2472 hectares (9.5 sq mi).
Geology
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
outcrops in east Sussex).
The Ashdown Sand formation has been exposed by the erosion, over many millions of years, of a geological dome, the Weald-Artois Anticline
Weald-Artois Anticline
The Weald–Artois anticline is a large anticline, a geological structure running between the regions of the Weald in southern England and the Artois in northeastern France. The fold formed during the Alpine orogeny, from the late Oligocene to middle Miocene as an uplifted form of the Weald basin...
, 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, 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
Weald Clay
Weald Clay is a Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rock underlying areas of South East England. It is part of the Wealden Group of rocks. The clay is named after the Weald, an area of Sussex. It varies from orange and grey in colour and is used in brickmaking....
, the high Greensand Ridge
Greensand Ridge
The Greensand Ridge is an extensive, prominent, often heavily wooded, sandstone escarpment and range of hills in south-east England. It runs in a horseshoe shape around the Weald of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It reaches its highest elevation, , at Leith Hill in Surrey—the second highest point...
escarpment that rises prominently to the north, and, on the horizon, the chalk escarpments of the North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
and South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
(see diagram, right).
Ashdown Sand is the lowest (oldest) layer of the Hastings Beds
Hastings Beds
The Hastings Beds is a geological formation in southeast England whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.-Ornithischians:-Saurischians:-References:...
, which comprise (in sequence) Ashdown Sand, Wadhurst Clay, and Tunbridge Wells Sand, and which are now thought to be predominantly fluvial flood-plain deposits. The Hastings Beds in turn represent 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
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
, was created soon after the end of the Cretaceous period as a result of the Alpine orogeny
Alpine orogeny
The Alpine orogeny is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic and Tertiary that formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt...
. 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 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
Quaternary
The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...
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.
Ecology
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 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 (213.4 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 a barrier to agricultural improvement.The Forest predominantly consists of lowland heathland. Of the 2472 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 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
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, heathland has shrunk by 50% over the last 200 years, and most of what remains is in Ashdown Forest.
Heathland
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
Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
Calluna vulgaris, bell heather Erica cinerea and dwarf gorse
Ulex minor
Ulex minor, Dwarf Furze or Dwarf Gorse is an evergreen dwarf shrub in the family Fabaceae, native to eastern England, France, Spain and Portugal. It is restricted to lowland heathland habitats....
Ulex minor. Important lichen communities include Pycnothelia papillaria. Bracken Pteridium aquilinum 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
Genista anglica is a shrubby flowering plant of the family Fabaceae....
Genista anglica, creeping willow
Salicaceae
Salicaceae are a family of flowering plants. Recent genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has greatly expanded the circumscription of the family to contain 55 genera....
sp. Salicaceae and heath spotted orchid
Dactylorhiza maculata
The Heath Spotted Orchid or Moorland Spotted Orchid , is an herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the family Orchidaceae.-Etymology:...
Dactylorhiza maculata.
In the wet areas are found several species of sphagnum moss
Sphagnum
Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...
together with bog asphodel Narthecium ossifragum, common cotton-grass Eriophorum angustifolium and specialities such as marsh gentian Gentiana pneumonanthe, ivy-leaved bell flower
Wahlenbergia
Wahlenbergia is a genus of between 150-270 species of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution except for North America; the highest species diversity is in Africa and Australasia...
Wahlenbergia hederacea, white-beaked sedge
Rhynchospora alba
Rhynchospora alba, the white beak-sedge, is a plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is a tufted herbaceous perennial plant found in fairly acidic wetlands which have few plant nutrients....
Rhynchospora alba and marsh club moss
Lycopodiella inundata
Lycopodiella inundata is a species of club moss known by the common names inundated club moss, marsh club moss and northern bog club moss. It has a circumpolar and circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout the northern Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic to montane temperate regions in...
Lycopodiella inundata. The Marsh Gentian, noted for its bright blue trumpet-like flowers, has a flowering season lasting from July well into October and is found in about a dozen colonies.
Gorse Ulex europaeus, silver birch Betula pendula, pendunculate 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
Common Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
Hyacinthinoides non-scripta, bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Vaccinium myrtillus is an almost Holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit, usually simply referred to as "bilberry" or "whortleberry". It is more precidely called Common Bilberry or Blue Whortleberry, to distinguish it from its Vaccinium relatives...
Vaccinium myrtillus, the hard fern
Blechnum spicant
Blechnum spicant is a species of fern known by the common names Deer fern or hard fern. It is native to Europe and western North America. Like some other Blechnum it has two types of leaves...
Blechnum spicant and honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum with birds-nest orchid Neottia nidus-avis and violet helleborine
Epipactis purpurata
Epipactis purpurata is an orchid....
Epipactis purpurata found particularly under beech. In the woodlands can also be found wood anemone
Anemone nemorosa
Anemone nemorosa is an early-spring flowering plant in the genus Anemone in the family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe. Common names include wood anemone, windflower, thimbleweed and smell fox, an allusion to the musky smell of the leaves...
Anemone nemorosa and common wood sorrel Oxalis acetosella.
Streams and ponds
Forest streams, often lined by alderAlder
Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...
trees Alnus glutinosa, 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 the Atlantic-facing western coastal regions of Britain. Uncommon bryophyte
Bryophyte
Bryophyte is a traditional name used to refer to all embryophytes that do not have true vascular tissue and are therefore called 'non-vascular plants'. Some bryophytes do have specialized tissues for the transport of water; however since these do not contain lignin, they are not considered to be...
s such as the liverwort Nardia compressa and a range of ferns including the mountain fern Oreopteris limbosperma and the hay-scented buckler fern
Dryopteris
Dryopteris , commonly called wood ferns, male ferns, and buckler ferns, is a genus of about 250 species of ferns with distribution in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in eastern Asia. Many of the species have stout, slowly creeping rootstocks that form a crown,...
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
Potamogeton natans L. is an aquatic species in the genus Potamogeton native to quiet or slow-flowing freshwater habitats throughout the Holarctic Kingdom....
Potamogeton natans, beds of bulrush (reedmace)
Typha latifolia
Typha latifolia is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Typha. It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Europe, Eurasia, and Africa...
Typha latifolia and water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile.
Woodland
Woodland covers nearly 1000 hectares (2,471.1 acre) of 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 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 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
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, 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
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, when he stayed with Macmillan), Millenium Clump and Friends Clump, planted in 1973 to mark the Year of the Tree.
Birds
Important populations of heath and woodland birds are found on the forest, notably Dartford WarblerDartford Warbler
The Dartford Warbler, Sylvia undata, is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe, and northwestern Africa. Its breeding range lies west of a line from southern England to the heel of Italy...
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 Nightjar
Nightjar
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes referred to as goatsuckers from the mistaken belief that they suck milk from goats . Some New World species are named as nighthawks...
Caprimulgus europaeus. Because of this, it has been designated as a Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...
and it is a popular destination for bird-watchers.
The Forest contains four main bird habitats:
- Open lowland heath, with various species of gorse and heather: Dartford WarblerDartford WarblerThe Dartford Warbler, Sylvia undata, is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe, and northwestern Africa. Its breeding range lies west of a line from southern England to the heel of Italy...
Sylvia undata, StonechatEuropean StonechatThe European Stonechat is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a subspecies of the Common Stonechat. Long considered a member of the thrush family Turdidae, genetic evidence has placed it and its relatives in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.It is 11.5–13 cm long and...
Saxicola rubecola and Meadow PipitMeadow PipitThe Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis, is a small passerine bird which breeds in much of the northern half of Europe and also northwestern Asia, from southeastern Greenland and Iceland east to just east of the Ural Mountains in Russia, and south to central France and Romania; there is also an isolated...
Anthus trivialis; in the summer, SkylarkSkylarkThe Skylark is a small passerine bird species. This lark breeds across most of Europe and Asia and in the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but eastern populations are more migratory, moving further south in winter. Even in the milder west of its range,...
Alauda arvensis, LinnetLinnetThe Linnet is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.The Linnet derives its scientific name from its fondness for hemp and its English name from its liking for seeds of flax, from which linen is made.- Description :...
Carduelis cannabina, YellowhammerYellowhammerThe Yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees and form small flocks in winter....
Emberiza citrinella and CuckooCuckooThe cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...
Cuculus canorus; and in winter, rarely, Hen HarrierHen HarrierThe Hen Harrier or Northern Harrier is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA, and in northern Eurasia. This species is polytypic, with two subspecies. Marsh Hawk is a historical name for the American form.It migrates...
Circus cyaneus. - Open areas of grassland, heather or gorse, with some bogs, interspersed with single trees or clumps of trees, particularly Scots Pine: Lesser redpollLesser RedpollThe Lesser Redpoll is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Carduelis in the finch family, Fringillidae. It is the smallest, brownest and most streaked of the redpolls...
Carduelis cabaret, GoldcrestGoldcrestThe Goldcrest, Regulus regulus, is a very small passerine bird in the kinglet family. Its colourful golden crest feathers gives rise to its English and scientific names, and possibly to it being called the "king of the birds" in European folklore. Several subspecies are recognised across the very...
Regulus regulus; in the summer, WoodlarkWoodlarkThe Woodlark is the only lark in the genus Lullula. It breeds across most of Europe, the Middle East Asia and the mountains of north Africa. It is mainly resident in the west of its range, but eastern populations of this passerine bird are more migratory, moving further south in winter...
Lullula arborea, Tree PipitTree PipitTree Pipit, Anthus trivialis, is a small passerine bird which breeds across most of Europe and temperate western and central Asia. It is a long-distance migrant moving in winter to Africa and southern Asia....
Anthus sylvestris, European NightjarNightjarNightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes referred to as goatsuckers from the mistaken belief that they suck milk from goats . Some New World species are named as nighthawks...
Caprimulgus europaeus, Common RedstartCommon RedstartThe Common Redstart , or often simply Redstart, is a small passerine bird in the redstart genus Phoenicurus...
Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Spotted flycatcherSpotted FlycatcherThe Spotted Flycatcher, Muscicapa striata, is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in most of Europe and western Asia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia. It is declining in parts of its range....
Muscicapa striata, Common SnipeCommon SnipeThe Common Snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitat is marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout northern Europe and northern Asia...
Gallinago gallinago, Eurasian HobbyEurasian HobbyThe Eurasian Hobby , or just simply Hobby, is a small slim falcon. It belongs to a rather close-knit group of similar falcons often considered a subgenus Hypotriorchis.-Description:...
Falco subbuteo, Eurasian WoodcockEurasian WoodcockThe Eurasian Woodcock, Scolopax rusticola, is a medium-small wading bird found in temperate and subarctic Eurasia. It has cryptic camouflage to suit its woodland habitat, with reddish-brown upperparts and buff-coloured underparts...
Scolopax rusticola, and YellowhammerYellowhammerThe Yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees and form small flocks in winter....
; in spring and autumn, WheatearWheatearThe wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae...
Oenanthe oenanthe, WhinchatWhinchatThe Whinchat Saxicola rubetra is a small migratory passerine bird breeding in Europe and western Asia and wintering in Africa.Its scientific name means "small rock-dweller", in reference to its habitat...
Saxicola rubetra, Common crossbillCommon CrossbillThe Common Crossbill is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It breeds in the spruce forests of North America, where it is known as Red Crossbill, as well as Europe and Asia; some populations breed in pine forests in certain areas of all three continents, and in North...
Loxia curvirostra; and in winter, rarely, Great Grey ShrikeGreat Grey ShrikeThe Great Grey Shrike or Northern Grey Shrike is a large songbird species in the shrike family . It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Southern Grey Shrike , the Chinese Grey Shrike and the Loggerhead Shrike...
Lanius exubitor. - Scrub areas, especially on the boundary between woodland and heath/grassland: Reed buntingReed BuntingThe Reed Bunting, Emberiza schoeniclus, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae....
Emberiza schoeniclus; in the summer, Turtle doveTurtle DoveThe European Turtle Dove , also known as Turtle Dove, is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes the doves and pigeons.-Distribution & Status:...
Streptopelia turtur ; in winter, Eurasian SiskinEurasian SiskinThe Eurasian Siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is also called the European Siskin, Common Siskin or just Siskin. Other names include Black-headed Goldfinch, barley bird and aberdevine. It is very common throughout Europe and Asia...
Carduelis spinus and Lesser redpollLesser RedpollThe Lesser Redpoll is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus Carduelis in the finch family, Fringillidae. It is the smallest, brownest and most streaked of the redpolls...
. - Mixed woodlands of oak, birch and sweet chestnut, often with Scots pine: Stock dove Columba oenas, Marsh titMarsh TitThe Marsh Tit Poecile palustris is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae and genus Poecile, closely related to the Willow, Père David's and Songar Tits. It is small with a black crown and nape, pale cheeks, brown back and greyish-brown wings and tail. Between 8 and 11 subspecies are recognised...
Parus palustris, Tawny owlTawny OwlThe Tawny Owl or Brown Owl is a stocky, medium-sized owl commonly found in woodlands across much of Eurasia. Its underparts are pale with dark streaks, and the upperparts are either brown or grey. Several of the eleven recognised subspecies have both variants...
Strix aluco, BullfinchBullfinch* A Bullfinch is one of two groups of passerine birdsBullfinch can also refer to:* Bullfinch , an obstacle seen on the cross-country course in the sport of eventing* USS Bullfinch, the name of two US Navy ships...
Pyrrhula pyrrhula, and Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus; in the summer Common Firecrest Regulus ignicapillus; Common BuzzardCommon BuzzardThe Common Buzzard is a medium to large bird of prey, whose range covers most of Europe and extends into Asia. It is usually resident all year, except in the coldest parts of its range, and in the case of one subspecies.-Description:...
Buteo buteo (occasional visitor).
Insects
The Forest supports a rich invertebrate fauna, with many heathland specialities. Half of Britain's 46 breeding species of damselflies and dragonflies (the OdonataOdonata
Odonata is an order of insects, encompassing dragonflies and damselflies . The word dragonfly is also sometimes used to refer to all Odonata, but the back-formation odonate is a more correct English name for the group as a whole...
) have been recorded, the scarcer among them being the Black Darter
Black Darter
The Black Darter or Black Meadowhawk is a dragonfly found in northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At about 30 mm long, it is Britain's smallest resident dragonfly...
, Brilliant Emerald and Small Red Damselfly
Small Red Damselfly
The Small Red Damselfly, Ceriagrion tenellum, is a small damselfly flying in heathland bogs and streams. It is in the family Coenagrionidae.-Identification:...
. It is also an important home for the golden-ringed dragonfly
Golden-ringed Dragonfly
The Golden-ringed Dragonfly is a large, striking dragonfly and the longest British species, the only one of its genus to be found in Britain. -Identification:...
, 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
Silver-studded Blue
The Silver-studded Blue is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.-Appearance, behavior and distribution:So named due to the silvery blue metallic spots on the underside hind wings. The upperside are a rich, deep iridescent blue in the males with a black border and the characteristic Lycid white...
, is by contrast plentiful, with the main food plants of its caterpillars being gorses and heathers.
Deer
Deer have been a major feature of Ashdown Forest at least since its days as a medieval hunting forest. Red deerRed Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, an essential part of Wealden culture as long as 6-8,000 years ago, and Fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
, already present in Sussex in the Romano-British era and particularly favoured by the Normans for hunting, were both hunted in the forest until the 17th century. By the end of the 17th century, however, the Red deer had disappeared completely from the forest while Fallow deer had declined to very low numbers. 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 as a result of escapes from a local deer park at Buckhurst. The population roaming 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
Roe Deer
The European Roe Deer , also known as the Western Roe Deer, chevreuil or just Roe Deer, is a Eurasian species of deer. It is relatively small, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. Roe Deer are widespread in Western Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, and from...
(the only native deer roaming the forest) and two recently introduced species, Muntjac
Muntjac
Muntjac, also known as Barking Deer and Mastreani Deer, are small deer of the genus Muntiacus. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15–35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene deposits in France, Germany and Poland....
and Sika deer
Sika Deer
The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...
.
Many deer are involved in collisions with motor vehicles on local roads as they move around the Forest to feed at dawn and dusk, and many are killed. In 2009 the Forest rangers dealt with 244 deer casualties compared with 266 the year before. However, this is likely to be a significant underestimate as the rangers do not deal with all the casualties that occur. The forest conservators have identified a need to reduce the deer population and has been working with major neighbouring private landowners on measures to cull them.
The landscape of Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest's landscape in the early 19th century was famously described by William CobbettWilliam Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
::
"At about three miles (5 km) from GrinsteadEast GrinsteadEast Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
you come to a pretty village, called Forest-RowForest RowForest Row is a village and relatively large civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located three miles south-east of East Grinstead.-History:...
, and then, on the road to UckfieldUckfield-Development:The local Tesco has proposed the redevelopment of the central town area as has the town council. The Hub has recently been completed, having been acquired for an unknown figure, presumed to be about half a million pounds...
, 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 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 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 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 the 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, 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 local iron industry, which grew very rapidly in 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 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.
Conservation measures
The open heathland landscape of Ashdown Forest described by Cobbett in the 1820s and depicted by Shepard in the 1920s changed dramatically soon after the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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 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
Natural England
Natural England is the non-departmental public body of the UK government responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, freshwater and marine environments, geology and soils, are protected and improved...
; 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 the 400 ha on the forest has been mown twice a year since 2000. Large areas of the highly invasive Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum
Rhododendron ponticum, called Common Rhododendron or Pontic Rhododendron, is a species of Rhododendron native to southern Europe and southwest Asia.-Description:...
have been cleared, initially funded by the Forestry Commission
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....
, 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 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 ha (1359 acre) fenced enclosure, representing about one-third of the Forest's 1500 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 2007-2010 with funding from 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 over-grown 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 the heathland, to enable the flock to graze without requiring close supervision by a shepherd.
Statutory designations
Ashdown Forest is an area of European ecological importance. It is designated by the UK government as a Site of Special Scientific InterestSite of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI), and as a Special Protection Area
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area or SPA is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certain particularly threatened birds.Together with Special...
(SPA) and a Special Area of Conservation
Special Area of Conservation
A Special Area of Conservation is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive , also known as the Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora...
(SAC). Ashdown Forest is part of the European Union's Natura 2000
Natura 2000
Natura 2000 is an ecological network of protected areas in the territory of the European Union.-Origins:In May 1992, the governments of the European Communities adopted legislation designed to protect the most seriously threatened habitats and species across Europe. This legislation is called the...
Network.
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 the habitats and species of Sussex.
Ashdown Forest lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
High Weald AONB
The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is situated in south-east England. Covering an area of , it extends across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. It is the fourth largest Area of Outstanding Beauty in England and Wales...
.
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 3144 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 the SSSI, Hindleap Warren, Broadstone Warren, and Sussex Wildlife Trust's Old Lodge Local Nature Reserve, which covers 76 hectare (0.293437640530327 sq mi). The SPA covers 3207 hectares (12.4 sq mi) while the SAC covers 2729 hectares (10.5 sq mi).
Recreation and leisure
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 the Forest was its "openness". Most visitors (85%) coming by car travelled 10 km or less and, interestingly, there were 62 dogs for every 100 visitors.Despite such large numbers of visitors, the Forest has retained its celebrated tranquillity and sense of openness. The commons are freely open to the public, who are attracted by the large, elevated expanse of unspoiled heaths and woodlands where they may walk, picnic or simply sit while taking in the glorious views. Various bye-laws passed by the Conservators help protect the Forest environment for the public good, prohibiting such activities as, for example, mountain biking, off-road driving of motor vehicles, camping, and the lighting of fires.
Travelling to Ashdown Forest
Most visitors come by car, and access is straightforward. The Forest is crossed by a major road, the A22A22 road
The A22 is one of the two-digit major roads in the south east of England. It carries traffic from London to Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast...
, which provides access from the M25
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...
and M23
M23 motorway
The M23 motorway is a motorway in England. The motorway runs from south of Hooley in Surrey, where it splits from the A23, to Pease Pottage, south of Crawley in West Sussex where it rejoins the A23. The northern end of the motorway starts at junction 7 on what is effectively a spur north from...
motorways. The Conservators have provided 48 unobtrusive car parks to discourage drivers from parking their vehicles on roadsides. The nearest railway station is at East Grinstead
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
, which receives frequent train services from London. Two bus services cross the forest: the 261 service from East Grinstead railway station to Uckfield stops at Nutley, Chelwood Gate, Wych Cross, the Ashdown Forest Centre and Colemans Hatch (two-hourly; no service on Sundays or public holidays), while the 270 service from East Grinstead railway station to Haywards Heath stops at Wych Cross and Chelwood Gate (hourly service, every day). London Gatwick Airport is about 25 minutes away by car.
Visitor and tourist information
The Ashdown Forest Centre (see below) is the main visitor centre for the forest. Tourist information points may be found at Ashdown Forest Llama ParkAshdown Forest Llama Park
The Ashdown Forest Llama Park is a large park situated in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, at Wych Cross, Forest Row. It is home to more than 100 llamas and alpacas...
, Forest Row Community Centre and Perryhill Orchards, Hartfield. The Forest's principal tourism organisation is the Ashdown Forest Tourism Association.
Recreational, sports and leisure activities
Ashdown Forest is very popular with walkers. Two long-distance footpaths, the Vanguard WayVanguard Way
The Vanguard Way is a long distance walk of around 66 miles from East Croydon in outer London to Newhaven on the south coast of England. It passes through the counties of Surrey, Kent and East Sussex, between Croydon and Newhaven, East Sussex...
and Wealdway
Wealdway
The Wealdway, Kent and East Sussex, is a public footpath that runs from Gravesend, Kent on the Thames estuary, to the A259 at Eastbourne, 3 km north of Beachy Head....
cross the forest and meet near Old Lodge. The Wealdway passes through Five Hundred Acre wood, the Hundred Acre Wood
Hundred Acre Wood
The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne...
of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. The Ashdown Forest Centre produces a series of leaflets detailing interesting walks in various parts of the forest, which may also be downloaded from its website.
There are 82 miles (132 km) of tracks on the Forest that may be ridden by horse once an annual permit has been obtained from the Conservators. The main horse-riding organisation is the Ashdown Forest Riding Association, which has around 200 members.
The Forest, with its attractive landscapes, vistas and hills, is a popular destination for road cyclists, races and cyclosportives such as the Hell of the Ashdown. Former Tour de France rider Sean Yates
Sean Yates
Sean Yates is an English former professional cyclist and head Directeur Sportif at Team Sky.-Career:Yates competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics, finishing sixth in the 4,000m individual pursuit. He also competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics...
lives at Forest Row
Forest Row
Forest Row is a village and relatively large civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The village is located three miles south-east of East Grinstead.-History:...
and has taken Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...
training here. Off-road cycling and mountain biking is prohibited for environmental reasons, except along public bridleways. A local pressure group is campaigning for this ban to be lifted.
The Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club occupies a large area of leasehold land in the northern part of the Forest near Forest Row. It is a traditional members' club founded in 1888 at the instigation of Earl de la Warr, Lord of the Manor, who became its first president. Its two 18-hole heathland courses are notable for the absence of bunkers (at the insistence of the Conservators). As elsewhere in Ashdown Forest, trees and bracken scrub have invaded following the cessation of grazing and decreased wood cutting by the Commoners, and the club is working with the Conservators to restore the golf courses to their original heathland character.
The principal hotel within the Forest is the Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club, a listed 19th century mansion house set in 186 acre (0.75271596 km²).
The Ashdown Forest Centre
The Ashdown Forest Centre, situated opposite Ashdown Park hotel between Wych Cross and Coleman's Hatch, houses a visitor centre and is the administrative base for the Board of Conservators of Ashdown Forest. Completed in 1983, it consists of three old reconstructed barns. The visitor centre has a permanent display about the forest's history and wildlife, details of walks in the forest and much other useful information for visitors, and an exhibition area for local craft and art work. It is open 7 days a week during the summer, weekends in the winter, and on Bank Holidays except Christmas Day and Boxing Day.Vachery Forest Garden
Landscaped in 1925 by Col. Gavin Jones for F.J. Nettlefold, this 'lost' forest garden is situated in a remote, secluded steep-sided valley near Wych Cross. It was acquired by the Conservators in 1994 and is now undergoing restoration. Already uncovered are a 250 metre gorge constructed using limestone brought from Cheddar Gorge, many unusual trees and a string of small lakes connected by sluices and weirs. The garden, which is open to the public, is part of Chelwood Vachery, a medieval estate dating back to at least 1229, and whose name may come from the French vache, referring to the grazing of cattle here by Michelham Priory. A leaflet describing a walk through Chelwood Vachery is available from the Ashdown Forest Centre. The nearest car-park is Trees on the A22 road between Wych Cross and Nutley.Old Lodge Nature Reserve
Old Lodge nature reserve, managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust, offers open vistas of the forest's heathland. A well-marked nature trail leads round most of the hilly 76 hectare reserve, which contains acidic ponds and areas of pine woodland. The reserve is notable for dragonfly, nightjar, redstart, woodcock, tree pipit, stonechat and adder.Nutley Windmill
Nutley WindmillNutley Windmill
Nutley Windmill is a grade II* listed open trestle post mill at Nutley, East Sussex, England which has been restored to working order.-History:...
, which stands just north of the Nutley to Duddleswell road, is thought to be about 300 years old and is a rare example of an open-trestle post mill (the whole body of the mill can be rotated on its central post to face the wind). It has been restored to full working order and is open to the public. It is within easy walking distance of Friend's Clump car-park.
The Airman's Grave
The Airman's Grave is not in fact a grave, but a memorial to the six man crew of a Wellington bomber of 142 SquadronNo. 142 Squadron RAF
-History:No. 142 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at RFC Ismailia, Egypt in 1918, flying a mixed bag of reconnaissance and bomber aircraft. On the formation of the Royal Air Force, on 1 April 1918, 142 Squadron was at RFC Julis in Palestine, becoming No. 142 Squadron RAF...
who were killed when it crashed in the forest on the morning of 31 July 1941 on its return from a raid on Cologne during World War II. The memorial, which is a simple stone-walled enclosure on the heathland west of Duddleswell, shelters a white cross surrounded by a tiny garden of remembrance and was erected by the mother of Sergeant P.V.R. Sutton, who was aged 24 at the time of his death. A short public service takes place each year on Remembrance Sunday when a wreath is laid by an Ashdown Forest Ranger, at the request of Mrs Sutton, together with one from the Ashdown Forest Riding Association. The Ashdown Forest Centre has published a circular walk to the memorial, starting from Hollies car park.
Newbridge Furnace
At the foot of Kidd's Hill, in woods lying west of the road from Coleman's Hatch to Gills Lap, are the largely grassed-over remains of a 15th century ironworks that mark the beginnings of Britain's modern iron and steel industry. A dedication placed at the site by the Wealden Iron Research Group reads: "Newbridge Furnace. At the behest of King Henry VII, the first English blast furnace, for the smelting of iron, was established in this place. 13 December A.D. 1496. Here, the water from the pond, held back by the dam, or bay, gave power to the bellows of the furnace to make cast iron; and to a finery where the 'great water hammer' enabled immigrant French workers to forge bars of wrought iron. The works had a modest output, which cannot have exceeded 150 tons of iron a year. Early products included the ironwork of gun carriages for a military campaign in Scotland, and were soon to number guns and shot as well. From small beginnings, in this secluded corner of Sussex, grew the ironworks of the Weald, and subsequently the iron and steel industry throughout Great Britain."Ashdown Forest Llama Park
Situated south-east of Wych Cross on the A22A22 road
The A22 is one of the two-digit major roads in the south east of England. It carries traffic from London to Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast...
main road, Ashdown Forest Llama Park
Ashdown Forest Llama Park
The Ashdown Forest Llama Park is a large park situated in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, at Wych Cross, Forest Row. It is home to more than 100 llamas and alpacas...
breeds and sells llamas and alpacas, and operates as a visitor attraction to educate the public about these animals. The park has a gift shop, coffee shop and tourist information point for which there is no admission charge.
The Forest pale
Possibly as early as the 13th century, Ashdown Forest was enclosed as a hunting park, mainly for deer, by a 38 kilometres (23.6 mi) long pale. This consisted of an earth bank 4–5 feet high surmounted by an oak paling fence with a deep ditch on the forest side that allowed deer to enter but not to leave. It enclosed an area of over 5,300 hectares (20.5 square miles). Entry was via 34 gates and hatches, gates being used for access by wheeled vehicles, commoners' animals and mounted groups, hatches by pedestrians. These names survive in local place-names such as Chuck Hatch and Chelwood Gate. Some of these entrances were, and still are, marked by pubs, for example the 18th century Hatch Inn at Coleman's Hatch, which occupies three former cottages believed to date to 1430 that later may have housed ironworkers from the nearby blast furnace at Newbridge.It is not known precisely when the pale was built. Forest management accounts of 1283 refer to the cost of repairing the pale and building new lengths. However, the granting of the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to John of Gaunt in 1372 and its renaming as Lancaster Great Park (see below) implies that the Forest may only have been recently enclosed (chase denoted an open hunting ground, park an enclosed one).
The condition of the Forest pale seems to have deteriorated significantly during the Tudor period. This coincided with, and may be partly linked to, the rapid growth under the Tudors of the local iron-making industry with its huge demand for raw materials in and around Ashdown Forest, such as charcoal and ironstone. This ultimately led to an appeal to King James, soon after his accession to the throne, for Ashdown's forest fences to be repaired in order to preserve the King's game. However, the pale seems to have fallen into almost complete disrepair by the end of the 17th century.
The bank and ditch associated with the pale are still visible in places around Ashdown Forest today, for example at Legsheath and adjacent to the car-park for Pooh Sticks Bridge on Chuck Hatch Lane.
Winnie-the-Pooh
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
. The first book, Winnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh (book)
Winnie-the-Pooh is the first volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. It is followed by The House at Pooh Corner. The book focuses on the adventures of a teddy bear called Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends Piglet, a small toy pig; Eeyore, a toy donkey; Owl, a live owl; and Rabbit, a...
, was published in 1926 with illustrations by EH Shepard. The second book, The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger, who went on to become a prominent figure in the Disney Winnie the Pooh franchise.- Plot :The title...
, also illustrated by Shepard, was published in 1928. These hugely popular stories were set in and inspired by Ashdown Forest.
Alan Milne, a writer who was born and lived in London, bought a country retreat for himself and his family at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield
Hartfield
Hartfield is a civil parish in East Sussex, England. Settlements within the parish include the village of Hartfield, Colemans Hatch, Hammerwood and Holtye, all lying on the northern edge of Ashdown Forest.-Geography:...
, East Sussex
East Sussex
East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, in 1925. This old farmhouse was situated on the banks of a tributary of the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
and lay just beyond the northern boundary of Ashdown Forest, about a mile from the ancient Forest entrance at Chuck Hatch. The family would stay at Cotchford Farm at weekends and in the Easter and summer holidays. It was easy to walk from the farmhouse up onto the Forest, and these walks were frequently family occasions which would see Milne, his wife, Dorothy, his son, Christopher Robin
Christopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
, and his son's nanny, Olive, going "in single file threading the narrow paths that run through the heather". Christopher, who was an only child born in 1920 and whose closest childhood relationship was with his nanny, spent his early years happily exploring the Forest. It is the Ashdown Forest landscape, and Christopher's reports of his experiences and discoveries there, that provided inspiration and material for A.A. Milne's stories. As Christopher Milne wrote later: "Anyone who has read the stories knows the Forest and doesn't need me to describe it. Pooh’s Forest and Ashdown Forest are identical".
Several of the sites described in the books can be easily identified, although their names have been changed. For example, Five Hundred Acre Wood, which is a dense beech wood that was originally sold off from the Forest in 1678 and is today privately-owned, and which Christopher would sometimes walk through to reach the Forest, became Hundred Acre Wood
Hundred Acre Wood
The Hundred Acre Wood is the fictional land inhabited by Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Winnie-the-Pooh series of children's stories by author A. A. Milne...
. The hilltop of Gills Lap, crowned by pine trees and visible from miles around, became Galleon's Lap. The North Pole and Gloomy Place are in Wren’s Warren valley, a short walk north-east of Gills Lap, as is The Dark and Mysterious Forest.
Furthermore, the landscapes depicted in Shepard’s illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which are very evocative of Ashdown Forest, can in many cases be matched up to actual views, allowing for a degree of artistic licence. Shepard's sketches of pine trees and other Forest scenes are now exhibited at the V&A Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
in London.
A free leaflet, “Pooh Walks from Gills Lap”, which is available from the Ashdown Forest Centre and downloadable from its website, describes a walk that takes in many locations familiar from the Pooh stories including Galleon's Lap, The Enchanted Place, the Heffalump Trap and Lone Pine, North Pole, 100 Aker Wood and Eeyore’s Sad and Gloomy Place.
Pooh Sticks Bridge, which is open to the public, lies outside the Forest on the northern edge of Posingford Wood, near Chuck Hatch. A path leads to the bridge from a car-park on Chuck Hatch Lane, just off the B2026 Maresfield to Hartfield road. The original bridge was built in 1907, restored in 1979 and completely rebuilt in 1999. So popular is the game of Poohsticks
Poohsticks
Poohsticks is a game first mentioned in The House at Pooh Corner, a Winnie-the-Pooh book by A. A. Milne. It is a simple game which may be played on any bridge over running water; each player drops a stick on the upstream side of a bridge and the one whose stick first appears on the downstream side...
that the surrounding area has been denuded of twigs and small branches by the many visitors.
Pooh Corner, situated on the High Street in Hartfield village, sells Winnie-the-Pooh related products and offers information for visitors.
Brief history
Ashdown Forest came into existence as a Norman deer hunting forest in the period following the Norman Conquest of 1066.Prior to the conquest, Ashdown seems simply to have been an unnamed part of the vast, sparsely populated, and in places dense and impenetrable woodland known to the Anglo-Saxons as Andredes weald ("the forest of Andred"), from which the present-day Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
derives its name. The Weald, of which Ashdown Forest is the largest remaining part, stretched for 30 miles (48.3 km) between the chalk escarpments of the North and South Downs and for over 90 miles (144.8 km) from east to west from Kent into Hampshire.
Ashdown Forest is not mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 but, as part of the forest of Pevensel, the sub-division of the Weald that the Normans created within the Rape of Pevensey
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
, it had already been granted by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain
Robert, Count of Mortain
Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st Earl of Cornwall was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother of William I of England. Robert was the son of Herluin de Conteville and Herleva of Falaise and was full brother to Odo of Bayeux. The exact year of Robert's birth is unknown Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st...
. This rape was strategically and economically important, extending as it did inland northwards from the English Channel coast towards London, and was guarded, as was the case with the other six Sussex rapes, by a castle. It was awarded to Robert, along with several hundred manors across England, in recognition of his support for William during the Norman conquest of England. Two important conditions applied to a forest like Pevensel: the king could keep and hunt deer there, while the commoners - tenant farmers who had smallholdings near the forest - could continue to graze their livestock there and cut wood for fuel and bracken for livestock bedding.
1095 - death of Robert de Mortain. Ashdown is then held by the lords of Pevensey castle - a succession of high status members of the Norman and Plantagenet aristocracy, including several Queens of England - for most of the next 200 years.
1100-30 - Ashdown Forest is first referred to by name when Henry I confirms that monks can continue to use a road across the forest of "Essendone". The monks' claim that they have held the right since the Conquest implies the area was known by this name at least as far back as then.
1268 - in the reign of Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
, Ashdown Forest is vested in the Crown in perpetuity. The forest was subsequently used for deer hunting by Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
, who built a hunting lodge near Nutley that was later to be used by John of Gaunt.
1282 - first documentary references to the forest pales appear in accounts prepared by a ranger recording the costs of timber that have been cut;
1372 - Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
grants the "Free-chase of Ashdon" to his third son, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. It becomes known as Lancaster Great Park. The park then reverts to the Crown along with the rest of the Duchy of Lancaster after John of Gaunt's death in 1399. But for the next 300 years, until 1672, the forest is still referred to as Lancaster Great Park.
1662 - Lancaster Great Park is disafforested by Charles II, giving free rein to the Earl of Bristol to make 'improvements'.
1693 - Ashdown Forest (the former Lancaster Great Park) is divided up, and it assumes its present-day shape. Just over half of it - in portions of widely varying sizes, but with the largest ones tending to be located towards the centre of the forest - is allotted for 'inclosure and improvement' by private interests. The rest is retained as common land for use by those local landowners and tenants who possess rights of common.
1881 - the commoners of Ashdown Forest reach a successful conclusion to their defence of a lawsuit brought by the Lord of the Manor which contested the nature and extent of their rights of common on the forest (known as the "The Great Ashdown Forest Case").
1885 - an Act of Parliament introduces bye-laws to regulate and protect the forest, and a Board of Conservators is established.
1988 - the freehold of the forest is acquired by East Sussex County Council from the executors of the Lord of the Manor, forestalling the possibility that the remaining common land of the forest would be broken up and sold off into private hands.
The 1693 division of Ashdown Forest
During the 17th century, under both the Stuart monarchy and during the Interregnum, there were repeated proposals to inclose (enclose) and develop the forest. Under James I and Charles I parcels of land were sold off piecemeal. During the Interregnum the condition of the forest deteriorated so much that by the time of the RestorationEnglish Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, in 1660, it was in a state where "the whole forest [is] laid open and made waste". Attempts to enclose and improve the forest (for example, by introducing rabbit farming, or sowing crops) were however strongly opposed throughout by the local commoners, who claimed rights of common on the forest, having exercised them "from time out of mind", as well as by neighbouring estates who claimed right of pasture there.
In 1662 the forest was granted to one of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
's closest allies, George Digby, Earl of Bristol, and it was formally disafforested to allow Bristol a free hand to improve it. His attempts to do so were however frustrated "by the crossness of the neighbourhood"; the fences he erected were thrown down and the crops he sowed were trampled by cattle. He defaulted on his rental payments to the Crown and left. Subsequent Lords of the Manor suffered similar opposition from the commoners. Compromise proposals were made to divide up the forest that would leave sufficient common land to meet the needs of commoners, while giving the rest up for improvement.
These unresolved tensions came to a head when, in 1689, a major landowner and 'Master of the Forest', Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset, brought a legal suit against 133 commoners in the court of the Duchy of Lancaster. The court decided to appoint commissioners to divide up Ashdown Forest's 13991 acres (5,662 ha) in a way that would meet the needs of both defendants and plaintiffs. The commissioners made their award on 9 July 1693. They set aside 6400 acres (2,590 ha), mostly in the vicinity of farms and villages, as common land, where the commoners were granted sole right of pasturage and the right to cut birch, alder and willow (but no other trees). The commoners were however excluded forever from the rest of the forest, about 55 per cent of its area, which was assigned for "inclosure and improvement" (though it should be noted that substantial areas had already been enclosed by then, so in such cases the decree was merely confirming the status quo).
The land award of 1693 is largely responsible for shaping the map of Ashdown Forest today. The common land is highly fragmented and irregular in shape, broken up by many private enclosures, large and small. It tends to lie on the periphery of the forest near existing settlements. Some of the largest enclosures, such as Hindleap Warren, Prestridge Warren, Broadstone Warren and Crowborough Warren, mostly lying towards the centre of the forest, were used for a time for intensive rabbit farming. Some of these enclosures have today acquired interesting uses: Pippingford Park, in the very centre of the forest, has become an important military training area, Broadstone Warren is a scout camp, while Hindleap Warren is an outdoor education centre
Although the 1693 land award envisaged enclosure and improvement for profitable gain, the land it allotted to private exploitation has in fact largely remained uncultivated; this has helped Ashdown Forest to retain the appearance of being an extensive area of wild country that is so valued today. That said, there is nevertheless a visible contrast between the areas of common land, maintained by the Conservators, which are predominantly heathland, and the extensive privately-held lands, which are generally either quite heavily wooded or cleared for pasture.
The Great Ashdown Forest Case
In 1876-82 a renewed challenge to commoners' rights became known as The Great Ashdown Forest Case, one of the most famous legal disputes of Victorian England.On 13 October 1877 John Miles was seen on the forest cutting litter (heather and bracken for livestock bedding and other uses) on behalf of Bernard Hale, his employer and the owner of a local estate, by a keeper, George Edwards. Edwards was a well-known and unpopular local man who was acting as the representative of the Lord of the Manor of Duddleswell, the seventh Earl De La Warr
Earl De La Warr
Earl De La Warr is a title created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1761.In the United States, Thomas West, 3rd baron is often named in history books simply as Lord Delaware. He served as governor of the Jamestown Colony, and the Delaware Bay was named after him...
, who owned the land on which the forest stood. In a test case, the earl challenged the right of Hale to cut litter. Hale, who claimed ownership of his estate made him a commoner of the forest, argued that he was entitled to send his men onto the forest to cut and remove bracken, fern, heather and other plants. The earl maintained that the commoners' rights of pasturage and herbage granted under the 1693 decree only entitled them to graze their animals on the commons. At the end of a protracted and complicated legal case, the court ruled against the commoners, who included some of the wealthiest landowners in Sussex. They appealed, and their appeal was upheld in 1881, but only on one ground, that it had been a long-standing practice for commoners to cut and take away litter from the forest, and they were therefore entitled to continue to do so under the Prescription Act 1832.
Resolution of the case in favour of the commoners led directly to today's framework of forest governance, with the passing of the first Ashdown Forest Act in 1885 and the establishment of a Board of Conservators for the forest.
Formation of the Board of Conservators
Following the conclusion of the Ashdown Forest case, a Board of Conservators was established by Act of Parliament in 1885 to oversee the Forest bye-laws, including the protection of Commoner's rights. More Acts of Parliament followed, which further refined the governance of the forest, culminating in the Ashdown Forest Act 1974.Sale of the Forest into public ownership
In the 1980s the Lord of the Manor, the 10th Earl de la Warr, offered Ashdown Forest for sale direct to the local authority, East Sussex County Council, if they would buy it; otherwise he would probably sell the forest piecemeal on the open market. On 25 November 1988 this threat to split up the forest was averted when, with the benefit of donations from many sources, including the proceeds of a public appeal supported by Christopher Robin MilneChristopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
that raised £175,000, East Sussex County Council purchased the freehold of Ashdown Forest from the executors of the earl, who had died the previous February. The freehold was then vested by the council in a newly-created charitable trust, the Ashdown Forest Trust.
The iron industry of Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest's iron industry flourished in the two eras when the WealdWealden iron industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay...
was the main iron-producing region of Britain, namely in the first 200 years of the Roman period (1st to 3rd centuries AD) and in the Tudor period (late 15th and 16th centuries). Ashdown was favoured by the widespread presence of iron-ore, extensive woodlands for the production of charcoal, and deep, steep-sided valleys (locally known as ghylls) that could be dammed to provide water power for furnaces and forges.
The Forest was the site of Britain's first blast furnace, at Newbridge, which began operation in 1496. It was constructed at the commission of Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
for the production of heavy metalwork for gun carriages for his war against the Scots. The furnace was designed and operated by French immigrants who brought the technology over from northern France.
Spurred by the development of blast furnaces, the iron industry grew very rapidly during the 16th century and became noted for the casting of cannons and cannonballs for the English navy. The celebrated ironmaster and gunfounder Ralph Hogge
Ralf Hogge
Ralf Hogge was an English iron-master and gun founder to the king.Working with French-born cannon-maker Pierre Baude and for his employer, parson William Levett, Hogge succeeded in casting the first iron cannon in England, in 1543...
, who in 1543 made the first one-piece, cast-iron cannon in England at nearby Buxted
Buxted
Buxted is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex in England. The parish is situated on the Weald, north of Uckfield; the settlements of Five Ash Down, Heron's Ghyll and High Hurstwood are included within its boundaries...
, drew his raw materials from the southern part of the Forest. However, the huge demand for raw materials and fuel, particularly charcoal, heavily depleted Ashdown Forest's woodlands, causing much concern and prompting commissions of enquiry by the King. In due course coppice management was used to ensure a more sustainable supply.
In the 17th century the industry declined and eventually died out as a result of competition from lower-cost iron-producing areas.
Archaeology
Ashdown Forest is rich in archaeology: there are more than 570 archaeological sites, including Bronze Age round barrows, Iron Age enclosures, prehistoric field systems, Roman iron workings, the medieval Pale, medieval and post-medieval pillow mounds for the rearing of rabbits, and remains of late 18th century military kitchen mounds that are among the only surviving ones in the United Kingdom.The earliest known trace of human activity in Ashdown Forest is a stone hand axe found near Gills Lap, which is thought to be about 50,000 years old. The vast majority of finds date from the Mesolithic (10,000-4,000 BC) and onwards into the modern era.
The London to Lewes Way
London to Lewes Way (Roman road)
The London to Lewes Way is a long Roman road between Watling Street at Peckham and Lewes in Sussex. The road passes through Beckenham and West Wickham, then crosses the North Downs above Titsey, on the county boundary between Surrey and Kent, and is overlain by Edenbridge High Street.The road...
, one of three Roman roads
Roman roads in Britain
Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman army , constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the...
that connected London with the important Wealden iron industry
Wealden iron industry
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay...
, crosses Ashdown Forest in a north-south direction, and would have been used to transport iron products from the Forest to London and the coast. The agger
Agger
An agger is an ancient Roman embankment or rampart, or any artificial elevation. It is a Latin word.It is especially used for the raised and cambered embankment carrying a Roman road...
of the road, whose foundations include iron slag, can be seen at Roman Road car park.
Ownership and administration
The freehold of Ashdown Forest, which essentially consists of the common land set aside in 1693, when the ancient forest was divided up by decree of the Duchy of Lancaster, plus a number of later land acquisitions, is owned by the Ashdown Forest Trust, a registered charity controlled and managed by East Sussex County Council. Ownership was vested in the trust after the council bought the freehold from the executors of the Lord of the Manor, the 10th earl de la Warr, in November 1988 following a high-profile fund-raising campaign. (The earl's stated intention, in the absence of a purchase by the county council, had been to sell the forest piecemeal into private hands.)The forest is regulated and protected by an independent Board of Conservators established under the Ashdown Forest Act 1885. The creation of the board followed the resolution of the protracted 19th century dispute between the commoners and the 7th earl de la Warr over rights of common on the forest. The structure of the board, originally composed entirely of commoners, altered significantly during the 20th century. Currently, of its sixteen members, nine are appointed by East Sussex County Council (one of whom represents the Lord of the Manor, the Ashdown Forest Trust), two by Wealden District Council, and the remaining five are elected by the commoners, of whom four must be commoners. The day-to-day management of the forest is the responsibility of the Forest Superintendent, the Clerk to the Conservators, and a number of supporting staff, including forest rangers.
The conservators are required to act in accordance with a number of Acts of Parliament
Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....
pertaining to the forest, of which the latest, the Ashdown Forest Act 1974, states (Section 16):
"It shall be the duty of the Conservators at all times as far possible to regulate and manage the forest as an amenity and place of resort subject to the existing rights of common upon the forest and to protect such rights of common, to protect the forest from encroachments, and to conserve it as a quiet and natural area of outstanding beauty."
A number of byelaws
Byelaws in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, byelaws are laws of local or limited application made by local councils or other bodies, using powers granted by an Act of Parliament, and so are a form of delegated legislation...
have been passed by the conservators under the 1974 Act to protect the forest and to preserve its perceived special character, particularly its tranquillity. These include prohibitions on off-roading driving, mountain-biking, horse-riding (except by permit), camping, the lighting of fires, digging, and the dumping of rubbish.
Finding adequate funding for the regulation and conservation of the forest has been a persistent issue. The income of the conservators in 2009-10 was £751,000, of which almost half was accounted for by funding from the government's Higher Level Stewardship
Environmental Stewardship
Environmental Stewardship is an agri-environment scheme run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England. It was formally launched on 18 March 2005, although the first agreements did not start until 1 August 2005....
(HLS) scheme, which requires the conservators to achieve certain objectives, such as restoring the heathlands to "favourable condition". Grants from the local authorities and the Ashdown Forest Trust accounted for another fifth. In 2009-10 there was a small surplus of income over expenditure (57% of which was staff costs). Cuts in local government expenditure and termination of HLS funding by 2016 present major challenges.
Large numbers of volunteers support the work of the conservators by undertaking conservation work in the forest. Many of these are recruited by the Friends of the Ashdown Forest, which has almost 1000 members. Fundraising by the Friends has helped towards the purchase of capital equipment for forest management such as motor vehicles and enabled the conservators to buy back parcels of land within the ancient pale for re-incorporation into the forest.
In 1994 the Board of Conservators, with the help of funding from East Surrey County Council, purchased 28 ha (69 acres) of woodland at Chelwood Vachery (an estate that dates back to at least 1229), including an early 20th century garden and lake system, after the estate was divided up and offered for sale by its owner. The land is now undergoing restoration as a forest garden and is open to the public.
Ashdown Forest's common land and its commoners
Contrary to widespread belief, a 'common' in England is not 'public land'. However, in the case of Ashdown Forest, the conservators have given the public open access to the common land, subject to compliance with bye-laws that largely aim to preserve the special character of the forest.
A right of common may be defined as:
"...a right, which one or more persons may have, to take or use some portion of that which another man's soil naturally produces..."
On Ashdown Forest the rights of common have varied over time. Those that remain today, which are subject to local byelaws and are under the control of the conservators, are:
- pasturage (or grazing rights): the right to graze sheep, cattle, goats, geese or mill horses (horses that provide power for the mill) on the Forest.
- estovers: today, understood to be the right to cut birch, willow or alder for use in the "ancestral hearth", which may only be exercised at certain times and in certain areas designated by the Conservators.
- brakes and litter: the right to cut brake (bracken) and heather and to collect litter for the principal purpose of bedding down livestock in winter on the land-holding.
Today, to a varying degree, every property possessing common rights has some or all of these rights over the registered common land of the forest.
To become a commoner a person must acquire commonable land; conversely, a person selling a commonable property ceases to be a commoner. Where a commonable property is sold off in smaller portions, the commonable rights are apportioned in accordance with the area of each portion. All commoners are obliged to pay a Forest Rate (based on the area of commonable land held) to contribute towards the administration of the forest by the Board of Conservators, and they are entitled to elect five commoners' representatives to the Board.
A sharp decline in commoning after the end of World War II resulted in a rapid loss of the Forest's open heathland to scrub and trees, threatening the many specialised and rare plants and animals that depend on the heathland and jeopardising the Forests's famous open landscape with its magnificent vistas, so well captured in EH Shepard's Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations. The Board of Conservators has responded by moving beyond its original administrative and regulatory functions to play a more active, interventionist role in combating the invasion of scrub and trees with the aim of restoring the heathland to a favourable condition.
Notable people
- A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
stories, lived at Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield, having bought the old farmhouse, situated about a mile from the ancient Forest entrance at Chuck Hatch, in 1925. - Brian JonesBrian JonesLewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
of The Rolling StonesThe Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
also lived at Cotchford Farm, and died there in 1969. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
stories, lived at CrowboroughCrowboroughThe highest point in the town is 242 metres above sea level. This summit is the highest point of the High Weald and second highest point in East Sussex . Its relative height is 159 m, meaning Crowborough qualifies as one of England's Marilyns...
, on the eastern edge of the forest. Locations around the Forest found their way into his stories. - Richard JefferiesRichard JefferiesJohn Richard Jefferies was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction...
, nature writer, lived at Crowborough for a period while he wrote some of his most famous essays. - Harold MacmillanHarold MacmillanMaurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, former British Prime Minister, lived at Birch Grove, near Chelwood Gate; the Macmillan Clump of trees is named in his honour. - Major Edward Dudley MetcalfeEdward Dudley MetcalfeEdward Dudley Metcalfe, MVO, MC, , known as Fruity Metcalfe, was an officer in the British Indian Army and a close friend and equerry of Edward VIII.-Career:...
, best friend and equerryEquerryAn equerry , and related to the French word "écuyer" ) is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a Sovereign, a member of a Royal Family, or a national...
of Edward VIIIEdward VIII of the United KingdomEdward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
, lived in a grey stone house in the forest.
Television and movies
Various locations in and around Ashdown Forest have been used as settings for television and film productions. These include ColditzColditz
Colditz is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Leipzig, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The town has a population of 5,188 ....
, the 2002 version of The Four Feathers
The Four Feathers (2002 film)
The Four Feathers is a 2002 action drama film directed by Shekhar Kapur, starring Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Djimon Hounsou and Kate Hudson...
, Under Suspicion
Under Suspicion (1991 film)
Under Suspicion is a 1991 film directed by Simon Moore. It stars Liam Neeson and Laura San Giacomo. Neeson won best actor at the 1992 Festival du Film Policier de Cognac for his performance...
, Flyboys
Flyboys
Flyboys is a 2006 American drama film set during World War I, starring James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, David Ellison, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester, and Tyler Labine. It was directed by Tony Bill, a pilot and aviation enthusiast. The screenplay was written by Phil...
and HBO/BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's mini-series Band of Brothers.