www.highweald.org www.highweald.org www.highweald.org www.highweald.org speeds up the rock’s decay. rock’s the up speeds are formed of Ardingly Sandstone. Ardingly of formed are View of Penns Rocks Penns of View buildings, were built from sandstone from built were buildings, by Grimm: Grimm: by the younger, the Ardingly Sandstone. The majority of the cliffs the of majority The Sandstone. Ardingly the younger, the probably because the dampness at the bottom of the cliffs the of bottom the at dampness the because probably Modest homes, as well as grand as well as homes, Modest Right: 18th-century drawing 18th-century Right: forming sandstones is named the Top Ashdown Sandstone and Sandstone Ashdown Top the named is sandstones forming been formed. Many of the cliffs are undercut at the base, the at undercut are cliffs the of Many formed. been more along the sides of river valleys. The older of the two cliff- two the of older The valleys. river of sides the along more during the Ice Age – that narrow passageways have sometimes have passageways narrow that – Age Ice the during features, with special and rare wildlife communities. communities. wildlife rare and special with features, In places, these cliffs extend for distances of half a kilometre or kilometre a half of distances for extend cliffs these places, In caused by successive freezing and thawing and freezing successive by caused by local residents and visitors as important geological important as visitors and residents local by on steep valley sides – perhaps – sides valley steep on enough to form inland cliffs, up to 15 metres high. metres 15 to up cliffs, inland form to enough Today sandrock cliffs and boulders continue to be valued be to continue boulders and cliffs sandrock Today Polygonal Cracking Cracking Polygonal sandstone have become so wide so become have sandstone sandstone. Two of the sandstone beds (or layers) are resistant are layers) (or beds sandstone the of Two sandstone. The joints within the within joints The when they were buried beneath the later deposits, forming soft forming deposits, later the beneath buried were they when Many of the Early Cretaceous beds of sand became compacted became sand of beds Cretaceous Early the of Many honeycomb weathering. honeycomb massed hollows known as known hollows massed had light tree cover tree light had Equally strange are the are strange Equally In the 18th century the cliffs cliffs the century 18th the In hide or tortoiseshell. or hide South country. EAST SUSSEX EAST KENT/SURREY North Channel Channel accessible cliffs are some of the most heavily used in the in used heavily most the of some are cliffs accessible appearance of crocodile of appearance Older underlying rocks underlying Older E.V. Lucas 1904 Lucas E.V. Sandra Fernandez the of side English the on discovered. As the only climbable rock in the South East, the East, South the in rock climbable only the As discovered. giving the rock the rock the giving the North and South Downs South and North the leaning tower is to Pisa’ to is tower leaning It was in the 1920s that the value of the rocks for climbing was climbing for rocks the of value the that 1920s the in was It weathered and cracked, and weathered edges of the dome, forming dome, the of edges Tunbridge Wells what the the what Wells Tunbridge Czech/German border. Czech/German On some cliffs the rind has rind the cliffs some On noise it made when struck. when made it noise has survived around the around survived has ‘The famous Toad Rock is to is Rock Toad famous ‘The Elbe Sandstone on the on Sandstone Elbe hotel. Bell Rock was so called because of the metallic ringing metallic the of because called so was Rock Bell hotel. Cretaceous beds. The chalk The beds. Cretaceous rock evaporates at the surface. the at evaporates rock became extinct, possibly as a result of too much shade. much too of result a as possibly extinct, became Luxembourg; and the the and Luxembourg; Lion Rock. Wellington Rocks were named after the nearby the after named were Rocks Wellington Rock. Lion beneath, exposing the Early the exposing beneath, deposited when water from inside the inside from water when deposited following folding and uplift and folding following especially rhododendrons. Some of the rare plants on the cliffs the on plants rare the of Some rhododendrons. especially the Petite Suisse in Suisse Petite the Overlying rocks removed by erosion erosion by removed rocks Overlying things they resemble – Toad Rock, Loaf Rock, Pulpit Rock and Rock Pulpit Rock, Loaf Rock, Toad – resemble they things Weald, and many of the beds the of many and Weald, organic matter, and with silica and iron salts which are which salts iron and silica with and matter, organic increasingly hidden by the growth of trees and shrubs, and trees of growth the by hidden increasingly in France; France; in Ridge Weald Downs Thames River Downs found nestling in the cliffs. Many of the rocks were named after named were rocks the of Many cliffs. the in nestling found the chalk from the High the from chalk the helps to protect it from the weather. The rind is enriched with enriched is rind The weather. the from it protect to helps Greensand Central North Basin Thames South from the late Victorian period onwards, the cliffs became cliffs the onwards, period Victorian late the from the Fôret de Fontainbleu Fontainbleu de Fôret the Wells were popular visitor attractions and tea rooms could be could rooms tea and attractions visitor popular were Wells Erosion has stripped away stripped has Erosion together, but the rock develops a hardened skin or rind, which rind, or skin hardened a develops rock the but together, sandstone outcrops had only light or patchy tree cover. But cover. tree patchy or light only had outcrops sandstone Europe: the Weald; Weald; the Europe: Clay, Sand & Gravel Chalk Gault Clay Lower Greensand Weald Clay and Sand and Clay Weald Greensand Lower Clay Gault Chalk Gravel & Sand Clay, In Victorian times the rocks in and around Royal Tunbridge Royal around and in rocks the times Victorian In The sand grains that form the cliffs are only weakly cemented weakly only are cliffs the form that grains sand The of soft sandstone in lowland in sandstone soft of Drawings show that in the eighteenth century many of the of many century eighteenth the in that show Drawings Batemans, Kipling’s house at Burwash. at house Kipling’s Batemans, • There are only four areas four only are There • within a woodland setting. setting. woodland a within – Battle Abbey, Bodiam Castle, Wakehurst Place and Place Wakehurst Castle, Bodiam Abbey, Battle – across to France. to across landscape of small, irregular shaped fields and open heaths open and fields shaped irregular small, of landscape have disappeared. have Sandra Fernandez Weald’s well known attractions are built of Wealden sandstone Wealden of built are attractions known well Weald’s The changing face of the cliffs the of face changing The High Weald in England, and extending and England, in Weald High Use of the High Weald’s abundant resources had created a created had resources abundant Weald’s High the of Use 21 mosses and liverworts and mosses 21 Sandrock was later valued as building stone. Many of the High the of Many stone. building as valued later was Sandrock coppiced woodland coppiced arched up into a broad dome, centred on the on centred dome, broad a into up arched years suggest 18 lichens and lichens 18 suggest years to fuel the Wealden iron industry. industry. iron Wealden the fuel to agriculture and converted to converted and agriculture land uplifts, South East England eventually England East South uplifts, land beneath the shelter of the sandstone cliffs. cliffs. sandstone the of shelter the beneath • Surveys in the last 50 50 last the in Surveys • extensive; timber was in high demand, particularly for charcoal for particularly demand, high in was timber extensive; The forest was cleared for cleared was forest The After a succession of sea retreat, invasion and invasion retreat, sea of succession a After tools, as well as fragments of charcoal, suggest they camped they suggest charcoal, of fragments as well as tools, By the end of the medieval period, woodland clearance was clearance woodland period, medieval the of end the By 90 lichens. lichens. 90 deposited, and then a great layer of chalk. of layer great a then and deposited, make use of the rocks. The discovery of thousands of tiny flint tiny of thousands of discovery The rocks. the of use make gradually clearing the forests to create open areas for farming. for areas open create to forests the clearing gradually mosses and liverworts and liverworts and mosses under a sandstone cliff. cliff. sandstone a under Tethys Sea. More sand and clay beds were beds clay and sand More Sea. Tethys forming, rather than being fossil features. fossil being than rather forming, who once roamed the Wealden forests, were the first humans to humans first the were forests, Wealden the roamed once who Mesolithic hunters sheltering hunters Mesolithic From the Neolithic period onwards, humans began to settle, to began humans onwards, period Neolithic the From the Weald, including 165 including Weald, the as warm as it is today is it as warm as disappeared beneath the advancing the beneath disappeared . They think the cliffs may still be still may cliffs the think They . Archaeological evidence suggests Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, Mesolithic suggests evidence Archaeological major sandrock outcrops in outcrops sandrock major the many milder periods of the Ice Age when the climate was climate the when Age Ice the of periods milder many the the Cretaceous period, the plain the period, Cretaceous the with a humid microclimate.