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Home , Ardingly Reservoir, Ashdown Forest, Bluebell Railway, Eridge Green, Eridge Park, Frant

Enjoy & Explore one of ’s Finest Landscapes on your doorstep

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The 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 p22 Standen 5 mi Pepenbury Toad Rock Park A21 10 km N A22 p22 Broadwater Warren p14 West Pepenbury Where can we go and National Trust Tunbridge Borough Council County Council RSPB Wells M23 East County Council Buchan Country Park p26 Friezland Wood what will we find? Grinstead p24 Woodland Trust The High Weald Area of Outstanding County Council Crawley Southern Water Hargate Forest p20 Natural Beauty (AONB) is a nationally Forestry important landscape. Within it, the Weald Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods p18 Commission Forest Forest Ridge is home to medieval hunting Wakehurst Place Row Woodland Trust forests, extensive woodlands, sandstone District Council 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 A23 the well-known, lofty heights of Ashdown Horsham National Trust Forest; to small, intimate woodlands alive Horsted Nymans with wildlife. Each place has a story to tell Keynes p18 St. Leonard’s Forest Reservoir p24 East and things of interest to spy. Tunbridge Wells High Beeches A26 p16 Grinstead 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 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 Parking charge Cycling Picnic area help you enjoy and explore! A22 Uckfield & Offsite parking Horse riding Refreshments 5 mi Available from good bookshops National Trust 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 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 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 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 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. In medieval times, rabbits were farmed • Ashdown Forest for their meat and fur but, being • Hargate Forest Today’s conifers at Broadwater incomers from the Mediterranean, • Leechpool and Owlbeech Woods were planted, for timber needed cosy artificial burrows to • Old Lodge production, only after the survive the lovely English weather! • St Leonard’s Forest Second World War. And Archaeologists call these burrows • Tilgate Forest. the RSPB is now removing “pillow mounds”. significant quantities, in a long- term programme of landscape Turn the page to find out how the restoration. Weald Forest Ridge’s hunting forests later became military training grounds. 14 Broadwater Warren 15 Firing ranges were built at a few Forest locations, for riflemen to practice target shooting. You Take can also see a particularly good surviving range at the RSPB’s Broadwater Warren reserve. Beware veering off the paths on Ashdown, as you can easily stumble into practice trenches from the First and Second World Wars. Look out, also, for anti-tank traps – concrete blocks known as dragon’s teeth, over which tanks could not pass. They were often used on Dragon’s teeth aim... Ashdown to stop tank drivers taking short cuts! Fire! Find out more: Not something you’d expect to hear on a visit to Don’t tell anyone, but at the 1980’s height of the Russian Cold www.highweald.org/ashdownforest Ashdown Forest! War, a secret nuclear bunker was built inside the Kingstanding www.ashdownforest.org But for over 200 years the Forest, along with other parts of the facility near Camp Hill. Weald Forest Ridge, has been an important military training ground. The army still trains on the Forest today at Pippingford Park. Local Pub/Café: Tea Rooms, Documents record a 1793 camp of 7,000 soldiers near Ashdown’s Military practice B2026, Duddleswell. Camp Hill – preparing for impending battles with . Field trenches kitchens from this time still remain as circular mounds. Local Producer: Willowdown Dairy Goats, A22, Nutley. Why not also explore: Military trench exposed by a fire • Broadwater Warren • Old Lodge.

Ashdown’s history is just one of many subjects schools can explore on self-guided or tutor-led visits to the Forest. Find out more at www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/education.php or ring 01342 823583. Volunteers excavating a field kitchen

16 Ashdown Forest 17 Adders bask in sunny spots, and tree pipits and stonechats flit around. Visit a heath on a warm summer’s evening and you might Sheep (Hebridean) Heavenly hear – or even see – the enigmatic nightjar, with its other-worldly “churring” song. Find out more: www.highweald.org/stleonardsforest heather The actions of humans – Visit Owlbeech Wood www. highweald.org/ Heathlands – purple with blooming heather at the height of summer – are clearing trees, grazing their and you might see leechpoolandowlbeechwoods an internationally important habitat that has drastically declined in England animals, and cutting gorse and black Hebridean sheep www.highweald.org/fieldandheath-story over the last 200 years. bracken for fuel and animal chomping the invading www.horsham.gov.uk/leisure/352.aspx Near Horsham, they are being restored at two locations – St Leonard’s Forest and bedding – have created heaths. birch; with their buddy Leechpool & Owlbeech Woods. Management is hence essential llamas protecting them Local Pub/Café: to maintain them nowadays. from local foxes! The Wheatsheaf, on the Heathlands are home to unique plants and wildlife. There are three different types of to Lower Beeding road. heather – bell heather, cross-leaved heath and ling – and the spring air is perfumed with the coconut scent of gorse. Local Producer: Heathlands also have rich cultural associations. St Leonard’s Forest was a well- Bangers Galore, Horsham. known smugglers’ haunt - its famous dragon is thought to be a myth to scare off www.bangersgalore.com the tax inspectors of the 1600’s! Hunt out the modern-day dragon carved into an oak seat. Why not also explore: • Ashdown Forest • Broadwater Warren Beware, • Buchan Country Park dragona bloodthirsty • Old Lodge

smugglers about!

18 St Leonard’s Forest / Leechpool and Owlbeech Woods 19 Resident birds are, hopefully, more visible, often with loud calls attracting attention to themselves. Woodland A raucous screech could be a Orange Tip passing jay, whilst a yodelling laugh is the distinctive sound of a green Find out more: woodpecker. However, anyone www.highweald.org/hargateforest Woodlands Hargate Forest, on the edge of Tunbridge spotting a crossbill, a sparrowhawk make up 40% Wells, is a typical woodland: with rides and and a tree pipit all in one day would be www.naturedetectives.org.uk of the Weald glades interspersed between native trees very lucky indeed! www. naturalengland.org.uk/advice/ Forest Ridge. and conifer plantations. It is great for wildlife wildlifeguide/default.aspx spotting: some easy, much not so easy to see! You can always cheat and look at the site wildlife interpreted in the Old Some of the biggest creatures – deer – are the Local Pub/Café: Carriageway’s tree guards! Hargate most elusive. Fallow, roe and muntjac can all be Woods, , Forest is one seen, but you might have a patient twilight wait Tunbridge Wells. of eight sites to catch a glimpse. At least this is easier than near Tunbridge visiting in the dead of night to see a badger! Local producer: Wells with Higham Farm, Bells Yew Green. Smaller, but no less elusive, are dormice and specially great-crested newts. promoted Why not also explore: buggy-friendly Almost anywhere – there is a walks – perfect for young lot of woodland in the Weald families to enjoy and explore. Forest Ridge! See www.highweald.org/ parenttoddlerwalks

20 Hargate Forest 21

Balcombe railway viaduct Find out more: www.bluebell-railway.co.uk www.spavalleyrailway.co.uk At Ashdown Forest’s Roman www.sustrans.org.uk People have travelled through the High Weald for Road car park, you can even www.highweald.org/forestway thousands of years. What has changed is how they stand in the footsteps of Roman www.highweald.org/worthway have travelled. traders and soldiers! First explorations were on foot: often accompanied by pigs 18 centuries later and Victorian Local Pub/Café: Java and Jazz, . and grazing animals. The distinctive sunken lanes result entrepreneurs brought railways from the action of feet, hooves – and later, wheels – over to the area: cutting through ridges and bridging valleys Local producer: hundreds of years. to connect to the south coast. The new Tablehurst Farm Shop, Forest Row. railways brought growth: with the increased mobility www.tablehurstandplawhatch.co.uk allowing London businessmen and bankers to build new country homes with extensive gardens. Several Why not also explore: of the lines, however, didn’t survive the 1960’s cuts of By train, steam train, bus, bike Dr. Beeching. and foot. Leave the car at home But the railway’s loss has been our gain. Two tourist for a change! steam train lines – the Bluebell and Spa Valley Railways – allow you to travel sedately through the stunning landscape as if in a bygone era. And you can peacefully cycle almost all the way from Groombridge to Crawley on the Forest and Worth Ways – gentle multi-user routes great for exploring families.

22 Forest Way / Worth Way 23 Water, water Gill A hammer pond today Water has always been an important resource Find out more: in the Weald Forest Ridge: albeit for different www. southeastwater.co.uk uses over time. Many of these historic /kingfishertrail waterpower ponds still survive www.highweald.org/weirwoodreservoir Water was an important power source before the today, sometimes in linked chains www.highweald.org/ardinglyreservoir advent of steam and electricity. The characteristic, heading up a valley. These ponds www.weirwood.me.uk steep-sided valleys – called gills – were often often lie alongside those created dammed to form ponds and a resultant “head” for watering livestock, or resulting Local Pub/Café: of water. The Tudor iron industry created many from abandoned quarries. Cat Inn, . “hammer ponds” to power its bellows and forges, whilst were also a common feature. In the later half of the 20th century, water Local producer: supply for human consumption started Imberhorne Lane Nursery, shaping the landscape. Two major reservoirs East Grinstead. were constructed: Weir Wood (1952) www.camelliasonline.co.uk owned by Southern Water, and Ardingly (1979) owned by South East Water. Why not also explore: When both are full, they hold over 2,375 • Tilgate Park million gallons of water – enough for over •  Linked ponds on public rights of 55 million baths! But you needn’t just enjoy way north of . the reservoir benefits at home. They are great locations for walking and relaxing, and offer fishing and water sport opportunities through clubs and activity centres. Pond bay reconstruction

24 Weir Wood and Ardingly Reservoirs 25 Sheffield Park Nymans Glorious Gardens Rhododendron Find out more: www.highweald.org/Edward The Weald Forest Ridge is blessed with some of Other estates from 100 years ago www. highweald.org Britain’s finest Victorian and Edwardian gardens. now have very different uses. Buchan /buchancountrypark But this prevalence of horticultural riches has not Country Park, near Crawley, is located www.nationaltrust.org.uk happened by chance. on land once part of the estate of Philip www.highbeeches.com Saillard – a businessman who sold playing The area’s sandy, acidic rocks and shady, steep-sided valleys cards and ostrich feathers! Buchan has a Local Pub/Café: create ideal soil and climatic conditions for exotic plants, Countryside Centre, and woodland and The Lamb Inn, Lambs Green nr. Rusper. especially Himalayan rhododendrons and azaleas. heathland walks around lakes created by Saillard. Well worth a visit! Local producer: The 19th century railways Tan House Farm Shop, . enabled entrepreneurs, Buchan Country Park www.tanhousefarmshop.co.uk making their riches in London, to move to Wealden country Why not also explore: house estates. Add in a • National Trust gardens: passion for plant collecting, Wakehurst Place, Nymans, and numerous private gardens Standen, Sheffield Park Gardens were developed in the 19th • The High Beeches. and early 20th centuries. The High Beeches Several are nowadays open for you to explore and enjoy. Unfortunately, not all the exotic plant introductions stayed confined to their gardens. Plants such as Rhododendron ponticum, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam have “jumped the fence”, and now need radical control programmes to stop them swamping native flora!

26 Buchan Country Park 27 This booklet has been produced to enable everyone living in and around the Weald Forest Ridge to be inspired to enjoy and explore.

The High Weald Area of Outstanding Between 2009 and 2012, a partnership Natural Beauty is one of 46 AONB’s in of 20 different organisations – from the England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its public, private and voluntary sectors designation helps safeguard its distinctive – delivered the Weald Forest Ridge character and natural beauty. Landscape Partnership Scheme. This Scheme, supported by the Heritage The 328km2 area of the Weald Forest Lottery Fund, enriched the area’s Ridge forms the highest ridge of the natural and cultural heritage, and enabled AONB: spanning parts of East Sussex, people to understand, learn about, care West Sussex and Kent. for, and enjoy this unique landscape.

For more information visit www.highweald.org T: 01580 879500 E: [email protected]

High Weald AONB Unit, Woodland Enterprise Centre, Hastings Road, , East Sussex, TN5 7PR. Published Spring 2013 by the High Weald Joint Advisory Committee on behalf of the Weald Forest Ridge Landscape Partnership Scheme. All photography and images copyright High Weald AONB Unit or Vivienne Blakey (www.vivienneblakey.com), except: I-Spy, p7, © Elizabeth Randall; dinosaur illustration, p10, © Alan Marshall; hunter illustration, p10, © Valerie Alford; Toad Rock image, p11, courtesy of Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery; charcoal and sawpit illustrations, pp12-13, © James Cope; oak tree, p13, © Forestry Commission; main image & harvester, p14, © RSPB; pillow mound illustration, p15, © James Cope; Field Kitchen, p16, © Chris Butler; trench, p17, © Vivienne Blandford; I-Spy, p17, © Elizabeth Randall; 2 of heather pics, p18, © Peter Greenhalf, Natural England; nightjar, p19, © RSPB Images; llamas, p19, © Council; pigs illustration, p22, © Alan Marshall; pond bay illustration, p24, © James Cope; I-Spy, p25, © Patrick McKernan; High Beeches garden, p27, © High Beeches Gardens; Buchan Country Park, p27, © West Sussex County Council. Designed by www.buffalozoomedia.co.uk

Involving people with the unique heritage in one of England’s Finest Landscapes