Enjoy and Explore the Weald Forest Ridge
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Enjoy & Explore one of England’s Finest Landscapes on your doorstep FREE The Weald Forest Ridge, in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty roads created by pigs historic homes built from You’re surrounded by a landscape shaped by the local landscape Did you humans over thousands of years. What a great place to Enjoy and Explore! De-stressing Buying local products and forests Admiring the view woods harvested playgrounds with no trees! Climbing Fishing for centuries for kings internationally Kite-flying RidingWildlife watching important wildlife Paddling Outdoor fun Historical research Foraging Getting fit Volunteering Hill-rolling Relaxing Picnicking Exploring Stream-jumping Running Den building Cycling Walking 2 3 Worth Way p22 Standen 5 mi Pepenbury High Rocks Toad Rock Tilgate Park A21 10 km N A22 Forest Way p22 Broadwater Warren p14 West Sussex Spa Valley Railway Pepenbury Where can we go and National Trust Tunbridge Crawley Borough Council County Council East Sussex RSPB Wells M23 East County Council Buchan Country Park p26 Friezland Wood what will we find? Grinstead Weir Wood Reservoir p24 Tilgate Forest Woodland Trust The High Weald Area of Outstanding West Sussex County Council Crawley Groombridge Southern Water Hargate Forest p20 Natural Beauty (AONB) is a nationally Forestry Frant Hartfield important landscape. Within it, the Weald Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods p18 Commission Forest Old Lodge Forest Ridge is home to medieval hunting Wakehurst Place Row Woodland Trust forests, extensive woodlands, sandstone Horsham District Council Sussex Wildlife Trust Stone Hill Eridge Rocks p10 cliffs, attractive villages, famous gardens, Rocks stunning wildlife and much, much more. National Trust Birchden Wood p8 Sussex Wildlife Trust West Nap Wood There are a wealth of places to visit: from Hoathly Forestry Commission A23 Balcombe the well-known, lofty heights of Ashdown Horsham Crowborough National Trust Rotherfield Forest; to small, intimate woodlands alive Horsted Nymans with wildlife. Each place has a story to tell Keynes SURREY Tonbridge KENT p18 St. Leonard’s Forest Ardingly Reservoir p24 East and things of interest to spy. Tunbridge Wells High Beeches Bluebell Railway A26 Ashdown Forest p16 Grinstead Tenterden Forestry Commission Crawley So please use this booklet to find out more, WEALD FOREST Crowborough Conservators of Ashdown Forest RIDGE and then head out to enjoy and explore! National Trust South East Water Horsham High Beeches Gardens Sheffield Forest p12 HIGH WEALD AONB Conservation Trust Haywards A272 Haywards Heath Uckfield Why not buy the Michelin WEST SUSSEX EAST SUSSEX Parking free Walking Buggy friendly Heath Forestry Commission “High Weald I-Spy” book to Sheffield Park Garden Lewes Parking charge Cycling Picnic area Hastings help you enjoy and explore! A22 Uckfield Brighton & Hove Offsite parking Horse riding Refreshments 5 mi Available from good bookshops National Trust Eastbourne Toilets Horse riding Self-guided leaflets and tourism outlets. permit only 10 km N Visitor Centre Interpretation Play area Entry charge 4 5 Other names are self explanatory when broken down: • Groombridge – a crossing on the River Grom. Be a landscape • Hartfield – a field where harts (male deer) were seen. But what about Chuck Hatch or Colgate? After 1066, many hunting forests were established: How can you find out about your local area? for royalty and rich lords to shoot animals for sport. You could, of course, research online or visit your library. The forests were enclosed by a bank and fence – But why not go out exploring – looking around you at called a pale – and a hatch or gate was a controlled Deer-related the villages, farms and woods of the Weald Forest Ridge. crossing of the pale. place name Before Sat Navs, people would navigate by distinctive Old buildings also reflect the landscape. The abundance landscape features. The names that places acquired of woodlands meant timber-framed or weather- reflected these features and their uses. boarded buildings were commonly constructed. And Find out more: buildings also used stone, bricks and tiles derived from www.highweald.org/highwealdstory Some place-names are obvious and need no explanation. the High Weald’s underlying sandstone and clay geology. A Minepit Wood or Furnace Farm probably relates to www. highweald.org/ the High Weald’s former iron industry. highwealdlandscapetrail Minepits past and present Why not also explore: Everywhere - villages, farmsteads, woods and fields are all around you! Or walk parts of the High Weald Landscape Trail. 6 Villages & settlements 7 Today, Birchden Wood has a modern, “Easy Access” trail: smoothly surfaced for buggies, wheelchairs and toddling Follow in the feet to explore. Oak Find out more: footsteps of pigs www.highweald.org/birchdenwoods www.highweald.org/routeways-story Why are the High Weald’s country lanes and ancient footpaths so sunken? Local Pub/Café: Visit Birchden Wood, near Groombridge, and find out it’s Be sure to find the sculptures Junction Inn and Tearooms, mainly due to the humble pig! that help bring this fascinating Groombridge. site alive. As early as 6,000 years ago, people living north and south brought pigs to the sparsely populated High Weald: to eat the Local Producer: autumnal acorn feast. This process – called pannage – lasted Cherry Gardens Organic Farm over 5,000 years. Even as late as Domesday (1086AD), over & Shop, Groombridge. 150,000 pigs made this annual journey. That’s a lot of acorn- www.cherrygardensfarm.co.uk flavoured ham for Christmas! Why not also explore: Following the same route each year, deep tracks were worn in the soft soils. Walk the public footpath crossing Birchden’s Almost anywhere! entrance road and you’ll follow the footsteps of pigs. You’ll find sunken tracks everywhere in the High Weald. The humans – called drovers – set up temporary camps – dens – to tend their pigs. So Birchden was the site of a den in a birch wood. Art and Sculpture 8 Birchden Wood 9 The Victorians admired the sandstone cliffs as marvels of creation: often holding elaborate tea parties in elegant dress beneath the outcrops. Stunning Individual rocks were named after objects they resembled. “The famous Toad Rock is to Tunbridge Wells what the Leaning Tower is to Sandstone mansion Pisa” said the writer E.V. Lucas in 1904. Hidden away in the High Weald is one of its most iconic features. Find out more: Sediments deposited on a shallow sea bed in the dinosaur age now www.highweald.org/landform-story www.highweald.org/eridgerocks form inland sandstone cliffs up to 15m high. A great example is Eridge Rocks, just west of Eridge Green on the A26. Local Pub/Café: The Weald’s sandrock cliffs have attracted humans for thousands of Nevill Crest and Gun, Eridge. years: for very varying reasons. Local Producer: Early hunter-gatherers venturing into the High Weald’s dense Speldhurst Sausages, wilderness used them for shelter. Toad Rock Sham Farm, Eridge. Later, the rock was dug for building and road stone – creating even www.speldhurstqualityfoods.com more exposures in the abandoned quarries. Why not also explore: Nowadays, rock climbers flock to the outcrops: the next nearest • Harrison’s Rocks climbable cliffs are in Dorset or Derbyshire! near Birchden Wood • High Rocks near Tunbridge Wells • Stone Hill Rocks But it’s not only humans near East Grinstead that appreciate the stunning • Toad Rock, Tunbridge Wells. sandstone. It is home to many rare plants like the Tunbridge filmy fern, which are found nowhere else in the south-east. 10 Eridge Rocks 11 They produced a very valuable resource – wood! Mighty oak trees provided huge beams: for timber- framed houses and the warships that sank the Spanish Armada. But huge trunks were difficult An to move with just horses and carts. Specially Locally-made charcoal dug sawpits were used to plank Find out more: them up: the poor, www.highweald.org/sheffieldforest sawdust-covered www.highweald.org/woodland-story “underdog” in the www.highweald.org/charcoal exploited wet, muddy pit, landscape looked down on by Local Pub/Café: his “topdog” mate. Coach House Tea Room, Sheffield Park Gardens. Today, we associate woods Local Producer: with peace and tranquillity. Wood also provided cooking and heating The Old Dairy Farm and Shop, Sheffield Forest, west of material, and importantly could be turned Furners Green. Nutley, is a typical example: into charcoal in earth-covered mounds to www.theolddairyfarmshop.co.uk quiet and full of wildlife to enjoy fuel the Tudor iron industry. on a leisurely walk. Why not also explore: This is why there is so much woodland in • Friezland Wood But time travel back 400 years the High Weald - you would hardly grub • Nap Wood and you would have a very up one of your most valuable resources. • Tilgate Forest. different experience. Woods To the careful eye, traces of sawpits and were like today’s industrial estates: charcoal platforms are still visible at noisy, smoky, and full of people. Sheffield Forest. Head there and try to find them! 12 Sheffield Forest 13 Follow the site’s History Trail, and you can find fascinating features from Bank the hunting forest past. Boundary banks mark past Find out more: We sometimes think forests should be covered with trees. land divisions, and ancient, www.highweald.org/archaeology So visit Broadwater Warren and explore a real Forest. sunken tracks identify www.highweald.org/broadwater former routes across the www.rspb.org.uk/broadwaterwarren Originally part of Waterdowne land. But most obvious is a Forest, Broadwater was a deer- huge “pillow mound”. Local Pub/Café: hunting preserve for the medieval Crown Inn, Groombridge. royal court. Visit 500 years ago and you would see open Local Producer: heathland, with only isolated Eridge Park Farm Shop, trees. Forests were land set Bunny Lane, Eridge. aside for royal-approved hunting, www.eridgeparkfarmshop.co.uk and heathland was a major part Why not also explore: of the typical Forest landscape.