FREEHistorical Happenings IN THE HIGH 10,000OVER YEARS OF HISTORY INSIDE!

STONE AGE

BRONZE AGE IRON AGE

ROMAN ANGLO SAXON FROM STONE AGE TO SPACE AGE! TIG and gort’s excellent adventure! Early Stone AgeThe family 24 25 stone 23 Stop to gather Gort Stone Tig Stone hazelnuts and lose 26 27 CAMP 27 26 25 sight of the party. Gort and Tig Stone are a brother and sister who saws and scrapers are used to cut and skin the 22 Miss a turn. Gather firewood. Move Unripe berries give 24 hunt with their family in the High Weald during animal ready for eating, and to clean and prepare straight to the camp. you a tummy ache. the Stone Age. the hide for other uses. Axes are useful for 21 Miss a turn. chopping wood, or through bone. Members of the Make some They do not live in a house, or even a cave, though hunting parties are expert microlith makers, and excellent microliths. 23 20 Move on 2 places. they sometimes use rocks and caves to shelter for a make them when needed during the hunt. 19 20 21 22 while. They move around and set up camps in good Hear an auroch places where food can be found nearby. Stone Age people make good use of the animals stamping past your 19 Spot a wild boar from the they have killed for food. Tig and Gort and shelter. Throw a 6 18 top of a tree. Throw a 6 to In summer they camp near rivers and catch and eat everyone else wear clothes made from animal skins to hit him with spear him and win the game! fish and wading birds. Following a river or stream and fur, stitched with bone needles or held your slingshot and 17 win the game! helps them find their way around, but they also together with bone pins. 17 follow animal trails through the woods. High rocks 14 15 are markers to help them know where they are too. Shelters are made from animal hides spread over 13 16 poles, a bit like a tent. Sometimes these are set up 16 The High Weald is a very against large rocks to give extra protection from the Chop through 15 wooded place at this weather, and from wild animals. 12 undergrowth with Dry weather. 14 time, but there are lots your flint axe. Take Move forward of glades and clearings short cut to 15. 3 places. amongst the trees, Making tracks Shelter 11 13 which include oak, Wolves! lime, elder, alder and Tig and Gort and their family follow animal Shelter hazel. On the higher tracks to hunt for food. When you are in the 10 12 ridges trees do not countryside see if you can spot any animal 8 Move forward grow so well as it can 9 4 spaces to 11 footprints in mud. Move forward safety. Follow a be windy, and the 4 spaces to Move back 4 deer trail. soil is poor. Ridges safety. spaces to safety. 7 Take short are good places for 10 Bear cut to 15. hunting, as animals 6 emerging can be seen easily Grey Fallow 5 from Fox Badger Move back from these higher, Why do you think the Squirrel Deer 4 You find a bone 9 woods! 4 spaces to open areas. It is also a burgers don’t have buns? Make your own trail and make a musical safety. good idea to watch out Shelter instrument. Have You could create a an extra throw. in the glades where animals graze, and close to trail for a friend to 8 water where they go to drink. Birds, wild boar, deer follow by drawing 3 Stub your toe You spear a on an old bone, Shelter and aurochs (a type of wild cow) all make good, arrows in the mud or, fish, have an protein-rich meals for Stone Age people. The miss a go. extra throw. if it is dry, arranging woodland is an excellent place to find nuts, berries small sticks in arrow 2 3 7 and honey too. shapes. 2 4 5 6 It is important to have the right tools and weapons. You wander close Blades and cutters are shaped from small flint You could cut out these pictures 1 1 to the river and get flakes, and are known as microliths. They might be of Tig and Gort and stick them stuck in the mud. You need a dice and two attached to wood or bone. Very sharp arrows, onto card to make counters for Tig’s Gort’s Miss your next go. counters. Choose who is spears and harpoons are made for hunting. Knives, the adventure game. trail trail Tig and who is Gort. Throw a 6 to start. START HERE Stone Age hunting parties camped High Weald under rock-shelters in the High Weald Tig and Gort are going hunting with their tribe. Each will take a different path following EVENTS 8000BCE 6000BCE 4500BCE streams and animal trails to get to the hunting camp. Who can reach the camp first? First evidence of farming in the world World Late Stone Age You lot in the …we moved from High Weald seem a bit behind the times, Og! We don’t In the High Weald we’re not so lucky as you. France to live in the South We can’t grow crops easily on our poor soil Downs and I must say the go trudging about all over the place looking for aurochs for and there are so many trees to clear. We have weather’s just as warm. We run to hunt for most of our food, like it or not. our farm just like we did our dinner NOWADAYS, you know. After all, it IS the But we gather our five-a-day from the when we lived on the woodland. How cool is that? continent. NEW Stone Age! trying to look interested Og Knapper lives in the High Weald in the late Stone Age. By this time people in other parts of the country have started to settle and farm the land, but in the High Weald life is still as it was in Well we use wild plants for food too, and we hunt a the early Stone Age. bit and catch fish. But now we keep our own One day, while gathering flint in the animals for meat and clothing, so we don’t always South Downs, Og meets Roo and Dag have to spend days and nights away from home Farmer. They have come from mainland being chased by wolves. It must take ages to cook Europe to settle in the South Downs… an auroch. And I bet they’re tough! I prefer our ready meals of pig!

We’re in touch with In the South Downs we That’s not so VERY different from us in the High Maybe some other time our inner selves in have lovely large Weald. We have always made our own clothes the High Weald. We farmhouses. We work from fur and skins. And, without wishing to blow live like our hard as farmers my own bone flute, we are EXPERT tool makers. Er thanks, but we’d best be off, ancestors in the tending our crops and We use a technique called “knapping” to break things to do, busy, busy… earlier Stone Age, but making sure our off and shape pieces of flint and polish them. I we’ve cleared some of animals are looked guarantee I can show you a tool for every the woodland so it’s after. Then there’s all occasion. You name it, I’ve made it … easier to see the the other things we just keep animals we are have to do like walking walking hunting. We use nets the dog (bred from what a bore for fishing as well as wolves you know)and harpoons. And making our own tools, we’ve STARTED not to mention to build houses, stitching our own but we still like clothes… the travelling life.

OG’S CATALOGUE Flint tools (microliths) have been found all over the High Weald, View Stone Age artefacts at: Here is a list of tools and useful items all made by Og. particularly around the area’s sandstone outcrops. Battle Museum; Bexhill Museum; Cranbrook Museum; East You can explore sandstone outcrops at: Grinstead Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Or ARE they? High Rocks, Eridge Rocks and Harrisons Rocks High Rocks, Eridge Rocks and Birchden Woods, which includes Horsham Museum; Tunbridge Wells Museum Saw Spear Harrisons Rocks. All are close to Tunbridge Wells. Scraper Arrow-head More online at: Knife Corkscrew www.highweald.org/eridgerocks www.highweald.org/Tarneg – video of a hunter gatherer Fork Needle www.highweald.org/birchdenwoods telling his story Tin opener Hammer www.highrocks.co.uk www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/archaeology.php Axe Club www.penshurst-online.co.uk/ Chopper Spanner Sandstone outcrops Replica Stone Age shelters can be seen at the Centre, Things_to_know_high%20rocks.htm Buchan Country Park and Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum Harpoon Mallet

High Rocks used by hunting Agriculture introduced to Britain from mainland Europe. However, in the more High Weald parties making microliths inhospitable High Weald, early Stone Age hunting practices continued EVENTS 4500BCE 4000BCE 3500BCE 3000BCE 2300BCE The wheel was being used in parts First evidence of First form of 3000 Bronze is Stonehenge 2700-2500 Pyramids of the world around this time farming in Britain writing in world produced in Egypt begun built in Egypt World Bronze, bracelets & buriedBronze Age treasure

y name is Lula. I live with my family in a n 1863 a Bronze Age hoard was Mcomfortable round house near Mountfield. Ifound in Mountfield. A hoard is a We have a neat and tidy little farm, all the fields are collection of objects buried together. divided into squares, with hedges or ditches Usually these are valuable because between. We grow wheat and barley and we keep the finds are very rare and can give us sheep on the farm, they are lovely brown ones with new information about life hundreds, short tails. We use their wool to make warm or thousands, of years ago. clothes. We do eat their meat sometimes, but often my father and brothers will hunt or fish. The Sadly, the importance of the Mountfield whole family works on the farm, my parents and Mountfield hoard wasn’t realised at Barrows my two brothers and sister. Other families live in the time. The objects were thought Axes, arrowhead and flints similar houses nearby and most of them keep to be brass and melted down. It is sheep and grow cereal like us. Some of the now believed that they were solid Barrows (burial mounds) and other artefacts have been found woodlands around here have been cleared gold! Part of a gold bracelet from scattered across the High Weald. There is little evidence of Bronze so that there is plenty of land to farm. the hoard can be seen in the British Age use of the area compared to areas such as the Downs which Museum. Perhaps it belonged to were heavily populated in the Bronze Age. You can see the bracelet from the Mountfield Hoard at the Lula. British Museum.

What things View Bronze Age artefacts at: Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Tunbridge Wells Museum We often have people passing would you like by our village as we live close to find in a More online: to a routeway. Sometimes they hoard? www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/archaeology.php are people we know quite well, like those from a settlement not too far from here. But sometimes there are visitors from a very long way away. Make a Bronze Age bracelet/wrist guard (or two) Travelling bronzesmiths stop here on their long journeys to sell their wares, such as You need: Ask your adult to cut the toilet roll in half (so you tools for building and cooking and weapons for hunting. • A cardboard tube from a have two wide rings) then to cut all the way My father says that a long time ago, when his great-great-grandfather toilet roll along the diagonal join on each. • PVA glue was young, everyone made tools from flint, but now most are made Tear your strips of newspaper into short lengths. • Water from copper or bronze. People here do make their own, but Mix the PVA and water (3 parts PVA to 1 part • Newspaper torn into strips bronzesmiths often have new types of chisels or knives to try. water). about 2cm wide • String, any thickness Start by glueing strips on the inside and folding • Metallic-looking acrylic paint, them over to the front at the top and bottom copper, bronze or gold (see picture, left). They don’t need to meet on coloured the outside. he thing I like best is that the bronzesmiths make • Scissors Cover the front using smaller pieces overlapping Tbeautiful jewellery – bracelets, hairpins, rings and • Brushes for glue and paint each other slightly. Try to keep the edges neat. torques – as well as tools. I have a bracelet which my • An adult! Tuck over to the inside where you need to. Leave mother and father bought for me. It is very special to dry, slightly bending the bracelet back into and I never take it off. shape if it has opened too much.

I often wonder where the bronzesmiths have come Cover the outside with another two layers, from and where they are going to. People say they reshape and leave to dry again. come from the coast and that they travel across the Glue your string in patterns on the bracelets. marshes along watery channels in their flat-bottomed Leave to dry, then paint all over. If you would like boats. Or some wait for summer and walk across an even shinier finish you could paint a top coat when the tide is very low. It must be a long and of PVA which will dry clear. tiring walk with all their goods to carry.

Bronze Age round barrows and High Weald settlements built on the Downs and in the High Weald EVENTS 2300BCE 2000BCE 1500BCE 1000BCE 700BCE Silbury Hill, a great man-made hill in Stonehenge 1450 Glass used in 1332-1323 Tutankhamun First evidence of David fought Goliath and 776 First Olympic Games Wiltshire, constructed in phases completed Egypt for ornament but ruled in Egypt horses being used became king of Israel (in Athens) World not for windows Iron Age West enders Our tribe is from the WEST END of the High Weald.“ We stick together and don’t let anyone tell us what to do. We make sure no-one gets their hands on ROCK the iron. It’s OURS! We use iron to make swords and knives and useful tools. They are the best you’ve ever seen. (But I wish someone would invent an umbrella that we could make, PARTY it’s rotten weather, always dark and rainy lately!) The Iron Age was the period when people first began to make tools and weapons from iron. We have small farms here and we keep cows and pigs. The High Weald was rich in iron and there was We grow cereal too, barley and wheat. rivalry between neighbouring tribes – each wanting to protect their resources. Here’s what Another thing we make better than anyone else is the the leaders of two rival tribes had to say… plough. Ploughs were made from wood in the old days, but ours are much better. Ploughs are pulled along by oxen and have iron teeth like a comb which loosen the soil and make a nice bed of ridges to sow our seeds. Here’s what they We don’t have anything to do with the east end tribes. They think they’re better than us, but they’re NOT. said after the party… We are going to have a midsummer celebration soon. It hat a great night! I take back what I said hat a laugh! Those west enders are quite will be on the High Rocks. We are going to gather wild Wabout the east enders, they know how to Wgood fun once you get to know them. We’ve berries to stain our faces. If any of those east enders have a good time. We’ve agreed to call a truce and made it up with them and we’re all going to get dare to turn up they’re going to get a nasty fright! defend our iron supplies together. After all, there together and keep an eye out from the High ” could be an invasion. The High Rocks is a good Rocks for any invaders after our iron. The west place to keep watch from. But call themselves tool enders’ tools aren’t up to much though. And their East enders makers? Don’t make me laugh. And their swords swords? I’ve seen a sharper blade of grass! Ours Our tribe is from the EAST END of the High wouldn’t cut butter. Ours are better by a mile. are far superior. Weald.“ We look out for one another. No-one tells US what to do. We won’t let any other tribe sneak up and try to get our iron. WE want it all! Make a wild mask like the east enders… Tunbridge Wells East Grinstead High You need: Put the paper plate in front of your face. Ask an Rocks We make swords and knives and useful things out of Tenterden Ashdown • A paper plate adult to mark and cut out where the holes for your Horsham iron, like cooking pots. AND we make a brilliant Forest farming implement, the plough. I’m sure no other tribe • Elastic eyes, nose and mouth will go. It doesn’t matter if • Acrylic paint (green or any colour you choose) they are a bit lop-sided, it will add to the wild Haywards has thought of THAT yet. Heath Heathfield Rye • Dry leaves, feathers, dried bracken, wool, small look! Paint the plate all over if you like, but don’t light twigs etc (nothing too heavy) have the paint too wet. When dry, glue your bits Hill forts We don’t have anything to do with the west end tribes. • PVA glue and pieces on. If you don’t have enough leaves Hastings They think they’re better than us, but they’re NOT. • Soft felt pen to mark eye-holes etc you could always make paper ones. Ask the adult The area’s iron-age forts were mainly built on the area’s highest • Scissors to make holes for the elastic and help you thread ridge, the Weald Forest Ridge. Replica Iron Age houses can be seen It is damp and cold here and everyone is grumpy. But it • An adult helper it through. at Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum and Michelham will be midsummer soon and we are going to celebrate. Priory where an Iron Age Festival is held every May Day. We will go to High Rocks to dance and sing. It might View Iron age artefacts at: …or paint your face like a wild west ender Battle Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; cheer us all up. You need: Make a facepaint base by mixing 1 tablespoon of Tunbridge Wells Museum • A basic cold cream (Nivea works well) cold cream with 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Add More online at: We are going to gather leaves and twigs to make wild • Cornflour 1 tablespoon of water and mix. Rub a few berries www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/archaeology.php head-dresses and masks for the celebration. It will www.penshurst-online.co.uk/ • Edible berries of your choice (blueberries, through a sieve to get the juice and add it to the Things_to_know_high%20rocks.htm frighten the wits out of any west ender who dares show strawberries, raspberries etc.) base mixture. Mind your clothes, juice can stain. his or her face!” 500 Large Iron Age fort built High Weald at Dry Hill Camp, Lingfield EVENTS 700BCE 600BCE 500BCE 400BCE 300BCE 200BCE 100BCE AD42 Around 700 Great Wall 480 Buddha died 280 Camel introduced About 193 Venus First form of 55 Julius Caesar first of China started into Egypt de Milo made writing in Britain came to England World Romans It is the year CCXII. My name is Sparkatus. I am XV years old and I work sparkatus’s guide to at the Beauport Park bloomery site near roman Numerals the coast. I bet you think we grow HIGH WEALD CCXII I = 1 flowers don’t you? V= 5 The bloomery here at Beauport Park is part of an sparkatus tells his story about the roman iron industry X = 10 How old is enormous and extremely important iron works. It is L = 50 Sparkatus and run by the government, the Roman Imperial State, to C = 100 what is the year? supply iron for the Roman navy, the Classis Britannica. There are worse jobs on the ironworks estate, like keep the fire going day and night. Charcoal gives off D = 500 X + V = ? I have heard it said that this ironworks is the third mining the stone, or working at the bloomery hearths twice as much heat as ordinary wood, so it is just right M = 1000 C + C + X + I + I = ? biggest in the whole of the Roman Empire! where the iron is smelted (which means heating the for smelting iron. ore to separate the iron from the rock). There is another huge My older brother, Logius, is a woodland manager. He Worse jobs than ironworks in the west of the When the iron is heated to has taught me about how the woodland is coppiced. High Weald, but that one is the right temperature it Young trees are cut down to near ground level. When iron-mining? privately owned. turns quite squishy. Once it they regrow they produce several thin trunks rather has cooled a little, the iron than one thick one. Trees cut periodically will keep Cloth-making was another High Weald industry There are lots of iron pits forms a lump. This has to on growing in this way and produce ideal wood for in the Romano British period. Cloth made from and mines around here first be beaten and hammered, making charcoal. sheep’s wool was treated in a special way to made by people working then heated and beaten all remove the oils and dirt. It had to be kneaded hundreds of years ago. Now over again several times, As you can tell, the High Weald is the best place for with a special type of clay, called fuller’s earth, we are opening them up, until it is just right. The producing iron. As well as the iron-rich stone and found in the area. The clay was mixed with and are digging new ones lump of iron is called the wood for fuel, our rivers make it easy to transport iron water and urine then poured into tubs to cover too. The Romans have bloom. (So nothing to do by boat to the ports, then by sea to other parts of the woollen cloth. Slaves had to get into the modern ways to extract the with flowers you see!) Europe. Talking of rivers, when the Romans came tubs and trample the cloth in the mixture! Urine iron ore (pieces of rock here, they built wooden bridges across them. It was also used as a bleach, to whiten and which contain the iron). These jobs are very hot and seems funny that no-one had thought of it before! brighten cloth. Wealthy and powerful Romans dirty work. There is a bath wore bright white togas made from one piece My job is to make charcoal. house with six rooms and Many new roads have been made by the Romans, of material draped over a tunic and held in Tree branches are cut into hot water on the estate, including two important ones which lead to place with ornate pins and brooches. Ordinary lengths and stacked but that is only for the use Londinium. Our roads are broad and straight and are people wore simple tunics. carefully to form a dome, of the foremen and offi- built using stone. Main roads are made stronger with then covered with mud, cers. We ordinary workers left-over iron called slag, which can’t be made into classis britannica sand and leaves from the have to make do with anything else. This makes them good for carrying stamped bricks and woodland floor. The stack is washing ourselves off in the heavy loads. The roads have a slight curve so water tiles have been burned very, very slowly, streams and gills, so we runs off them, much better than the soggy old muddy found at beauport sometimes over a few days. You never quite lose the have a reddish tinge to our skins from the iron in the tracks and routeways we have around here. and cranbrook. smell of smoke in your nostrils, or the taste of it in the water! We use these streams for cooling the iron too. back of your throat. But at least I am out in the woods and can enjoy the sight and sounds of the birds and My father, Dadalus, is a charcoal burner like me. We animals (along with the sounds of hammering from have always lived here in the woods during the the works!). charcoal-making season, as you have be on hand to There are numerous ancient minepits and Roman ironworking sites scattered over the High Weald. Major sites were at Beauport Park, Ashdown Wadhurst Forest Bardown near Wadhurst and Ashdown Forest. Oak has grown in High Sweet Chestnut Weald woodlands for Logius’s was brought here View Roman ironworks artefacts at Battle Museum and thousands of years. by the Romans for exhibitions at: Cranbrook Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Horsham Museum; Rye Castle Museum; Roman ironworking sites Beech has been here food. The roasted Beauport words Tenterden Museum; Tunbridge Wells Museum. Minepits nearly as long but nuts are good to recently it has spread a eat and can be More online at: www.highweald.org/Maximillius – video of a Roman soldier www.highweald.org/learn/local-products/ lot. Wise people say from ground into flour telling his story how-products-are-made/612-wood-to-charcoal.html this is because the for cooking and www.romansinsussex.co.uk www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/IronWorking.php climate has become baking. The wood makes mild and moist. the woods excellent charcoal too. www.wealdeniron.org.uk www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/archaeology.php

100 Iron working sites like that at 250 Iron working sites like that at Beauport Park Saxon Shore Fort at High Weald Beauport Park entered a boom period. fell into decline, possibly because of Pevensey built over-exploitation or deforestation EVENTS AD43 100 200 300 410 43 Romans invaded. 60 Revolt by the British queen, 80 Fishbourne Roman 122 Emperor Hadrian built a 324 Emperor Constantine Romans withdrew Britain became part of Boudicca. London, Colchester Palace was built wall on the Scottish border converted to Christianity from Britain World the Roman Empire and St Albans destroyed Saxons

NOTICE ST LEONARD’S FOREST NO SNAKES (TOO SLIMY) NO NIGHTINGALES (TOO NOISY) any of the roads, lanes, footpaths and The swineherds would knock the acorns off ABOVE ALL, NO DRAGONS tracks we use today in the High Weald the oak trees with sticks. Where woodlands M (TOO DANGEROUS) were created over a thousand years ago. were managed, some oaks were cut and kept low especially for pannage. Acorns grew BY ORDER OF ST LEONARD HIMSELF. These routeways were established by people earlier on these and were easier to reach. bringing herds of pigs from the downs to the NEWSFLASH • NEWSFLASH • NEWSFLASH woodlands. This activity would take place in the The pigs would make pigs of themselves on late summer and autumn. People and pigs the acorns, (and on other woodland fruits, Popular local saint, Leonard, is would return year after year to the same places, insects and worms) so would get very fat, recovering in hospital tonight after following the same routes. which was the idea. They would provide what is thought to have been a good meat for the swineherd and his Don’t make ferocious attack by the last dragon in The tracks, known as droves, were trodden by family during the winter months. a pig of yourself if England. so many feet and trotters over such a long you want to come The saint, known locally as Len, period of time that they became permanent. After the pigs had been slaughtered the meat back next year. fought bravely to overcome the serpent- They run north and south because the animals was salted. This was a way of preserving it so like monster, which subsequently died were being driven from the North Downs and that it didn’t go off and could be eaten over of its injuries. Unconfirmed reports the South Downs into the High Weald, a long period. say Lily of the Valley is already which lies between both. springing up from the spot where drops of Leonard’s blood fell. We will bring Same old igs were brought to the woods to feed on you more on that story as it comes in. P place year after acorns. This grazing of woodland is called year. St Leonard’s condition is said to be pannage. stable. He has requested that no nightingales disturb his prayers. Drove routes

St Leonard’s Forest

Can’t complain, at least the grub’s good here. No-one knows how the legend of St Leonard and Many of the High Weald’s lanes, footpaths and bridleways are the dragon came eople probably moved animals around in this ancient routeways. As you travel around the area you will often be P treading in the footsteps of drovers and their pigs. about. The idea way in even earlier times, but in the Saxon period Routeways you can explore at: of a forest dragon Den is an old English word meaning woodland pasture was especially valued as pig www.highweald.org/explore/walking-and-cycling.html might have been rearing was a way of life for many people. woodland pasture. There are old fields, Exhibits at: used to explain the fires woodlands and isolated farms with den in East Grinstead Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; and roaring sounds when ironworking was taking their names in the High Weald. Some of Swineherds would set up temporary shelters and Tenterden Museum place. Or later still, the story could have been our villages also have names which contain live in the woodland for about two months. More online at: spread by smugglers who hid their contraband www.highweald.org/Edmund – video of a drover telling his story the word, and give a clue to their past. Eventually, after the Norman Conquest, these goods in the forest and wanted to scare people temporary dwelling-places would become the www.highweald.org/learn/about-the-high-weald/ Can you think of any? the-routeways-story.html away. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle records site of permanent settlements. serpent-like creatures here in the 8th century.

465 Battle between 471 Pevensey taken 600s Early dens developed in the 765 Earliest droving evidence in the 830 Alfred the Great 960 Dunstan, Archbishop Saltworking became High Weald Saxons and British by the Saxons High Weald – the Jutish Forest High Weald, from the Stanmer Estate built fort at Newenden of Canterbury, founded common in and around Rye was captured by the West Saxons Mayfield village EVENTS 410 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1066 500 The legendary King Arthur was 570 Mohammed 597 Augustine 787 First Viking 868 A Chinese printed roll, 1014 Canute supposed to have fought against born founded Christianity attack on Britain the earliest surviving work in became king World the Saxons at this time in England print, dates from this time Middle Ages

n the Middle Ages, wool was one of England’s Medieval Times Tuesday 28th February 1337 Imost important products. English wool was of Special feature – Wine in Winchelsea good quality, with tough, long hairs which made Medieval Hoodies it easy to spin. It was in demand on the Woollen hoods were continent, where it would be woven into cloth. fashionable at this time. 1250, when freak weather conditions A type of hood especially devastated the area. The best cloth was made by expert weavers in popular with young The old town of Winchelsea was Flanders (part of today’s Belgium). Woollen cloth people was called the built close to the sea, on a bank of made in England wasn’t so good as the weaving liripipe. This could be shingle. At this time there were many process was less advanced, so anyone who could more than 180cm long! storms. Some of these happened at the afford to bought their cloth abroad. Do you think they were same time as very high tides, creating easy to wear? huge waves. The wind, rain and rough To keep money in this country Edward III made it sea together caused the shingle to illegal to wear clothes made from foreign cloth. He move and change position along the banned the export of wool and encouraged shore, until eventually the old town Flemish weavers to come to work in England so the was lost to the sea. The harbour also best woollen cloth could be made here. became blocked. Luckily, help was at hand from Some of the Flemish weavers settled in the High The nursery rhyme “Ba-Ba Black King Edward I. He needed the har- Weald, particularly in Cranbrook and Tenterden. Sheep” is thought to be about a bour for his navy, so in the 1280s he This area became an important and wealthy centre tax on wool in the Middle Ages. had a new harbour AND a new town for cloth production. The natural features of the built for Winchelsea. The streets are One for the master who was High Weald made it an ideal place for the industry, broad and laid out in a grid, just like the king, one for the dame who with woodland supplying timber to build mills and some of the newest towns in France. was meant to be the church. Our wine expert Ozymandias Cluck visits the And most importantly, the new weaving looms, and streams to power the mills. Who do you think the Fuller’s earth, a type of clay used in the cloth- Winchelsea home of Geoffrey de Boudreau – one Winchelsea is on a hill out of the little boy was? making process, was found here. And of course, of England’s leading wine importers – and samples reach of the sea. Winchelsea’s new port is better the High Weald had plenty of sheep! some of the latest French wines from Gascony than ever and many ships can land Before I get carried away tasting the Many importers and wine merchants their goods at once instead of having wine, I’d better tell you about live in the town, as can be seen by the to wait their turn in the harbour. In In the Middle Ages, wool would have been coloured using natural dyes Winchelsea – England’s most impor- number of stone cellars here – cool 1307, when records began, 737,000 made from leaves, flowers, berries, bark and roots of plants. tant port for importing wine. Oh dear, places to store the wine beneath their gallons of wine (3,350,468 litres) had I sound a bit tipsy already! houses. been landed in just eight months! Make your own natural dyes Winchelsea harbour sits below the But things looked rather worrying And now I am going to try a few of town at the mouth of the river Brede, for the wine trade during the second them. Santé! (That’s CHEERS in Please ask an adult to help – you need to use What you do: Damp your fabric first. which flows into the English Channel. half of the last century, from around French). very hot water! Put dyestuff into a saucepan and cover with water. Simmer for 10 minutes, turn off heat and What you need leave to cool. Strain the cool liquid into a larger You can find dyestuff in the kitchen – try a saucepan. Add your damp fabric and just enough Smallhythe and Reading (near handful of vegetable peelings, onion skins, carrot extra water for the fabric to move around (not too Rivers and ships The coast before Tenterden) on the river Rother leaves; a tablespoon of coffee or one or two full). Bring to a low simmer again. Stir from time the 1287 storm In the 14th century, High Weald were important centres for ship teabags. If you have a garden, experiment with to time very carefully to make sure the fabric is Rye firewood would be loaded at a building in the Middle Ages. leaves, flowers or grass (marigolds are good). evenly dyed. Leave the fabric dyeing for up to dock at Float Farm, Udimore. It New Winchelsea Faded flowers work better than fresh ones. Old Winchelsea Henry V’s warship, The Jesus, 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the dye cool was then carried down the river Henry VII’s warship, The Regent, before straining off. Squeeze the fabric scraps Brede to the harbour at Hastings and later, Henry VIII’s warship, Small pieces of fabric. Natural fibres like wool or and hang them up to dry where they won’t drip Winchelsea, then shipped to cotton work best. colour on anything else. The coastline today The Grand Masters, were all built London or the continent. here.

1086 The Domesday Book recorded 150,000 pigs being 1176 Robertsbridge Abbey 1234 Timber from 1287 Great storm 1360 Winchelsea 1385 Castle built 1414 New wall 1450 Kentish rebellion High Weald driven into the woods of the High and Low Weald founded Ashdown used to build diverted course of raided by French at Bodiam built at against taxes. Leader Jack Chichester Cathedral River Rother Winchelsea Cade killed at Heathfield EVENTS 1066 1100 1200 1300 1400 1485 1066 Norman 1086 Domesday 1170 Thomas 1225 English take 1286 Spectacles 1348 Black Death, 1381 Peasants Revolt 1415 Battle of 1455 Wars of the 1485 Henry Tudor invasion Book Becket murdered control of Gascony invented in Italy 30-40% of population against poll tax Agincourt Roses defeated Richard III World of England died at Bosworth Middle Ages Tudors and Stuarts DOWN ON THE How the High Weald iron industry became even more important in Tudor times.

BUNNY FARM Tunbridge Wells East Grinstead IT’S A That’s Broadwater Tenterden because they St Leonards Bedgebury Horsham Forest Ashdown Forest They’re are rabbits! Forest breeding like Haywards rabbits! Heath Heathfield Rye

Hastings BLAST! You can explore remnants of the High Weald’s great Medieval Iron had been produced in the High Weald for centuries, but from the first use of Forests at: www.highweald.org/stleonardsforest the blast furnace in Coleman’s Hatch in 1496 the industry expanded rapidly. www.highweald.org/broadwater he blast furnace had been used in French At this time the town of Calais, although in France, www.highweald.org/ashdownforest

No rabbits were harmed No rabbits were in the making of this picture. ironworks for many years and now began to be belonged to England. Weapons for the English royal www.highweald.org/bedgeburyforest used in England. This provided a way of armoury were made there. The French wanted abbits were introduced into England by the Exploring around Winchelsea: T RNormans in the 12th century. They were an www.eastsussex.gov.uk/environment/conservation/ smelting iron at very high temperatures. It meant the Calais to belong to France, so Henry VIII declared excellent source of both meat for food and fur for ryebay/download.htm iron became liquid and could be poured into war on them. High Weald foundries were kept busy View medieval buildings at: moulds, or cast, rather than beaten into shape. supplying cannon and shot. clothing, so people decided to breed them and Weald and Downland Open Air Museum started rabbit farms. Exhibits at: By the 1540s Henry VIII had closed England’s monas- French High Weald iron workers had to swear At that time rabbits were delicate creatures and not Battle Museum; Cranbrook Museum; Eden Valley teries and abbeys. Rich people were able to buy up allegiance to the King and pay a fee, or they would Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Horsham used to the English weather. The rabbit farmers had the lands. In the High Weald, some of these new be made to leave the country. By this time these men Museum; Rye Castle Museum; Tenterden Museum; landowners set up ironworks and were wealthy and their families were quite settled here, so they to dig large warrens for the rabbits to live in, to Winchelsea Museum enough to employ expert French workers to run them. would not want to lose their jobs and be sent away. protect them from the cold and wet. This was easier More online at: to do in the sandy soil of heathland in areas like www.highweald.org/Hugh – a commoner of Ashdown Forest As the iron could now be cast, it was easier to make England lost the fight for Calais in 1558, but the iron Ashdown Forest. telling his story certain things. The first cannon was cast in Buxted in industry in the High Weald was even busier. www.highweald.org/Edith – a medieval farmer telling her story www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/monuments.php 1543 by a French ironmaster. Cannon balls could be Weapons could no longer be made in Calais, and made from iron instead of stone. now there were wars to be fought against Spain. The High Weald iron industry was more important

James Cope The farmers made than ever. fences around the Grrrr… warrens to keep foxes outfoxed! and other predators away and to keep the Fire AND Water rabbits in. You can see Blast furnaces were powered by a continuous flow lots of these warrens, of water from fast-flowing gill streams. known as pillow mounds, marked on Forges needed large supplies of water, but not modern maps. all the time. Hammerponds were created to store water for when it was needed. Ironworks were sited in valleys where water was easily Deer parks – the latest must-have! available. •Impress your friends, annoy your enemies, be the envy of everyone! Ironmasters – •Now you too can have your own hunting ground by royal licence. the new (old) footballers! We are expert deer park fitters, established in 1250. We can The success of the iron industry led New get your park up and running in no time. Or we can supply to new wealth for the ironmasters the kit for you to fit your own. (or to even greater wealth for the catalogue ones who were rich already). To out Comes complete with spades for digging the ditch and mounding up the earthworks. But it needn’t cost the earth! show off their wealth and status, NOW Our customised circular layout gives you maximum space for some ironmasters built large and minimum outlay. Keeps fencing costs down. rather grand manor houses. These were generally built of Deer not included. Payment on easy terms. Insure your fencing against rabbits. Your home will be at risk if you do not keep up the payments. stone or, later, of brick.

Middle Ages 1066 to 1485 Tudors and Stuarts 1485 to 1714 Tudors and Stuarts

Woodland Worries in the Weald – The Great Debate The High Weald has everything we need. Woodland for The expansion of the iron industry meant a large amount of High Weald woodland was Well some of fuel to heat our homes and furnaces; for being used to fire the furnaces. But there were other demands on the woodland too … you lot can afford your building ships and houses. Rocks full of iron. Stone own woodlands. You for building and clay for brick-making. Land to What about the clothiers are as bad graze sheep for meat and wool. Streams to power In my ironworks cloth workers? We need our ironworks; rivers to transport the things we Some ironmasters as the ironmasters. You ironmasters we coppice our woodland Ordinary people fuel as much as anyone. make and grow. We’ve got to find a way to don’t care who else needs are a greedy lot! You use so that lots more shoots can’t go out and gather How else can we heat our look after it for ever, then IT will the wood. They own the up all the trees to make grow up from the stubs of fuel in the forest like we used to, vats and coppers to dye Don’t forget Yes, but you look after us! charcoal for your the trees. That makes woodland and sell off what and we can’t afford to pay the our cloth? we need timber for need iron for building too. furnaces. The cannons more wood. they’re not using at a high prices rich landowners house-building as well We don’t just make weapons you Hear, hear! you make are useless price to people in London want to charge. as stone and clay. know. What about tools for if we can’t build ships who can afford it. building? Then there’s nails, WE AGREE! You’re right to carry them. bolts, latches, keys, locks, firebacks... there.

Well said lad.

We keep people in work. We buy wool from the farmers, we pay Don’t talk to me Well, coppice cottagers to dye it, spinners about farmers. They’re wood is no good to us ship- to spin it and weavers always clearing the trees to builders. We need thick trunks to make it into cloth. make extra fields for and boughs. And some of you themselves too. have chopped down whole trees willy-nilly.

Across Iron and Wood Crossword 1. Slow-burning fuel made from wood. ON THE THRONE Read this page, “It’s a Blast” and the Roman iron story to help find the answers. 5. Flowery-sounding place where Romans From our royal correspondent made iron. 12 7. French town where weapons were made The word in the woods is that High Weald timber could be used to 3 4 for England. create the highest seat in the land, by Royal Command! 8. Wooden houses were ------framed. 5 9. Thick boughs and trunks were needed for His Royal Highness King Henry VIII has ordered a ‘close stool’ for 6 this. his exclusive use. It is to be made by William Grene, coffer-maker, 11. People gathered this for heating and 78 cooking. and, being a water closet, will be the first of its kind in the world. 13. The word for heating iron. The seat, back and elbows will be made of stout wood (which it is 15. Woodland was ------to make space Ancient woodland 910 11 hoped will be sourced from High Weald woodlands). It will be SHIPBUILDING for agriculture. 12 16. Religious houses closed by Henry VIII. padded with 3lbs (1.36kg) of down covered in black velvet and will The High Weald has many ‘ancient’ woodlands because the timber 17. Tree introduced by the Romans. be decorated with silk fringes and ribbons, all tacked down with gilt they produce has been valued by people for centuries. There were nails. It is believed the final cost will be around £6.41.* over 80 ironworks sites across the area; their remnants hidden in 13 Down the woodlands. Find out about places where you can explore 1. Cutting trees close to ground level so “We are all hoping that the King will bestow this honour on the woods at: www.visitwoods.org.uk they produce several thin trunks is called High Weald,” said woodland manager Gabriel Oak. Exhibits at: ------. 14 Anne of Cleves House, Lewes; Battle Museum; East 2. ------Hatch, where the first blast “As major suppliers of the finest timber to 15 furnace was used. His Majesty’s Navy Royal, we feel it Grinstead Museum; Eden Valley Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Priest House, West Hoathly; Rye 3. A fast-flowing stream in the High Weald. would be a fitting tribute. The woodsmen 4. Where expert iron workers came from. Castle Museum, Tenterden Museum; Tunbridge Wells 16 6. Area where all of these stories happened. are giving it their best shot and their Museum; Weald and Downland Open Air Museum 7. First cast in Buxted. efforts are not to be pooh-poohed.” More online at: 10. Continental invention that changed the www.highweald.org/Jane – video of an ironmaster’s wife iron industry. * The court astrologer says that in around www.highweald.org/Jacob – video of a woodland worker 12. Ironmaster’s house with six brick 465 years time, this amount of money will 17 www.highweald.org/learn/about-the-high-weald/ Solution below chimneys. be worth £1,285.00 www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/IronWorking.php

14. Workers who made wool into cloth. www.wealdeniron.org.uk www.hammerpond.org.uk

1 Coppicing. 2 Colemans. 3 Gill. 4 France. 6 High Weald. 7 Cannon. 10 Blast furnace. 12 Batemans. 14 Weavers. 14 Batemans. 12 furnace. Blast 10 Cannon. 7 Weald. High 6 France. 4 Gill. 3 Colemans. 2 Coppicing. 1 Down chestnut. Sweet 17 Monasteries. 16 Cleared. 15 Smelting. 13 Fuel. 11 Shipbuilding. 9 Timber. 8 France. 7 Bloomery. 5 Charcoal. 1 Across

1496 First blast furnace Anne Boleyn spent 1543 First cast iron 1573 Elizabeth I 1634 Iron master, John 1710 First turnpike road in , High Weald used at Coleman’s Hatch childhood at Hever Castle cannon made in Buxted visited Rye Brittan built Batemans Tunbridge Wells to Sevenoaks 1550 EVENTS 1485 1500 16001603 1650 1700 1714 1485 Henry VII became 1509 Henry VIII 1538 Henry VIII 1558 Elizabeth I 1564 Shakespeare 1603 Elizabeth I died, last 1642 English Civil War 1649 Charles I beheaded 1665 The Plague 1685 Composers Bach first Tudor king became king abolished monasteries became queen born Tudor monarch. James I 1660 Monarchy restored 1666 Fire of London and Handel born World became first Stuart king Georgians Hop-picker’s cake Hopping Down to This old Kentish recipe tells you Dear Susannah, to bake the cake for one and a half hours. Ovens cook more I love our new home in Newenden but I miss quickly now, so your cake might the High Weald all my old friends, especially you. be ready in an hour or so. Daddy is growing hops on our farm as he From the late 17th century road networks improved. says the brewing industry is on the rise. Here, 275g self-raising flour 1 teaspoon ground ginger Stagecoaches ran between London and the south close to the river Rother, we have the right 1 teaspoon mixed spice coast passing through the High Weald... type of soil for hops to grow well. The fields 175g margarine cut into they grow in are called hop gardens. That pieces People from London came to the High Weald for 100g soft brown sugar pleasure... sounds lovely doesn’t it? The gardens are full of rows of poles made from sweet chestnut. 100g sultanas Tunbridge Wells was a very fashionable place to 100g currants Robinson Crusoe visit. Daniel Defoe, who wrote , Daddy says this makes the best poles, good 50g mixed peel said it was a place where “rich clothes, jewels and and straight and it doesn’t rot. 425ml milk beauty” dazzled the eye and that “without money a Farmers need a lot of people to help with 1 tablespoon black treacle man is no-body at Tunbridge”. the growing and picking of hops. Whole 1 level teaspoon cream of Although the road network had improved, the tartar road surfaces of High Weald clay were as bad as families from nearby work on the hop farms 1 ⁄2 level teaspoon ever. They were sometimes too muddy for a vehicle and in the picking season people come from bicarbonate of soda to use, and were generally full of ruts and holes. London too. We had very special helpers this There were often accidents. Visitors to Tunbridge year. A travelling circus was passing through 2lb (900gm) tin greased and Wells took their personal bonesetters with them just lined with baking paper in case! These were specially trained people who and the circus folk helped us to wrap the hop could put dislocated bones back in place. People from London came to the High Weald to bines around the poles. The clowns are all stilt Please be sure to ask an live... walkers so they could reach to the very top, adult to help with Rich people from London moved to the High Weald but kept pretending to fall off! They have warming the milk and and bought land and built large country mansions. using the oven. Others bought old manor houses and modernised given lessons to some of Daddy’s workers so them to their own tastes. Some new landowners now we’ll have our own stilt-walkers (unless Wash your hands. Set the Tunbridge Wells started farms. East Grinstead they run away and join the circus!) oven at 160°C gas mark 3 Chalybeate Tenterden springs with the shelf in the centre. Horsham Love Anabelle XXX River Rother Iron Brew Haywards Newenden Sift the flour, ginger and Heath Heathfield Rye – it’s what the TOP BRASS is drinking! Round or square, which is best? mixed spice into a bowl. Lightly rub the margarine into Hop growing area around 1830s Members of the aristocracy have been beating a In the early days of growing, hops were Hops grown more densely in this area Hastings path to our CHALYBEATE SPRINGS since their the flour using your fingertips. chance discovery by Lord North in 1606. Here’s dried in converted barns. Later, specially Add the sugar and fruit. Dip a designed oast houses were built. Visit the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum what those top-notch tourists are saying: tablespoon into very hot water www.wealddown.co.uk to find out more about historic rural life. “Forget the expense and inconvenience of travelling to The first oast houses had square towers. and spoon your treacle into a the Belgian spa, or to Bath. This is just 35 miles from But then people started to think that round saucepan with the milk. Have Exhibits at: London.” oast houses were better as the heat could another spoon handy to help Bexhill Museum; Cranbrook Museum; East Grinstead “I just know it must be doing me GOOD because it rise more evenly, so circular buildings with get the treacle off. Warm the Museum; Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Horsham tastes so AWFUL!” conical roofs were built. The white “cowl” milk gently, stirring in the Museum; Rye Castle Museum; Tenterden Museum; on top would turn as the wind changed Tunbridge Wells Museum; Yesterday’s World, Battle “Great place to relax, catch up with friends and get cream of tartar and healthy at the same time!” and open and close to let the air in. bicarbonate of soda. Pour More online at: “My doctor recommended spa water for my palsy, Later still, it was decided that square into the dry mixture and stir www.highweald.org/Ruby – video of a hop picker and now I feel a million ducats!” oasts were best after all, and were also with a wooden spoon. Pour www.highweald.org/learn/local-products/ easier and cheaper to build! You can see 1 Just some of the many reasons to into tin and bake for 1 to 1 ⁄2 how-productsare-made/611-from-hops-to-beer.html CAST IRON both types around the High Weald. www.hoppingdowninkent.org.uk hours. When it is ready, it will visit Tunbridge Wells. www.kentlife.org.uk Oast houses were built using brick, tile feel firm on top. or weatherboard, all local materials.

1724/25 Daniel Defoe travelled 1756-63 Iron industry supplied 1787 New Rye Harbour built but 1805-1809 Royal Military Canal 1822 World’s first 1828 JMW Turner 1830 Riots against High Weald through the High Weald equipment for the Seven Years War abandoned soon after and Martello Towers built to dinosaur remains painted in the area poverty of farm workers defend the coast found at Cuckfield EVENTS 1714 1750 1800 1837 1714 Queen Anne, the last 1721 Sir Robert Walpole 1756 Mozart born 1768 Captain Cook 1789 French Revolution 1799 Napoleonic Wars 1812 Charles Dickens 1835 Hans Andersen’s Stuart, died. George I became first prime minister sailed on his first born Fairy Tales published World became king voyage of discovery Victorians/Edwardians Hmmm… what this garden needs is a bit of Japanese   Knotweed Improvement and Inspiration

The Laurels, Crowborough, Sussex illiam Morris was a Victorian artist, His wallpaper and textile designs usually featured designer and thinker. He believed that birds, plants and animals painted in a medieval people should live simply, and work at style. These are still popular, almost 180 years after 4th May 1885 Dear Henrietta, Wmaking the things they needed for his birth. He designed the furniture, carpets, fabrics We are all nicely settled in our new villa in the High Weald. We have had their own every day lives. In this way their work and wallpaper for Standen, a Victorian house and the house completely redecorated, so now for the garden! would be enjoyable and fulfilling and their lives garden in the High Weald that you can visit today. more meaningful. Nature is all well and good, but it is rather untidy, don’t you think? Nothing grows in the right place. I’m sure we can improve on it. I think we could do He was inspired by medieval craftsmanship – he with a few shrubs at the edge of the garden, just where it borders the admired how buildings, furniture and decorative Broadening the mind woodland. I’ve heard rhododendrons are all the rage, especially the type items like tapestries were made in the Middle Ages. The new railway system made travel easier for the Victorians. The beauty of the High Weald attracted called ponticum. I think if I plant those, I can’t go wrong. The flowers will He was also inspired by nature. You can imagine all types of visitor and many writers and artists look splendid in my new Japanese vases in the drawing room. him wandering around the High Weald appreciating its timber-framed houses and stone churches, or found inspiration here. Victorian Apparently there are other new plants too, like Himalayan Balsam and getting ideas from the variety of wildlife and the Japanese Knotweed. They are supposed to rival the exotic plants they have colours and textures of the area’s natural features. Look good ideas? at HER right at the Mutton at Kew, but don’t need to be grown in a hothouse. You get a lot of plants front. Who does she dressed as What seemed like from a packet of seeds and they spread, so they’ll make a good display. he Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a think she is? lamb! improvements to the Victorian group of artists, were friends Wake Victorians have sometimes Now you can get the train from London it will be easy for you to visit us with William Morris. Some of their me up when he’s become problems for us often. We can go on walking tours all over the High Weald. The rocks members spent time in the High finished. today. Plants such as and gills here are rather like the highland glens so beloved of our dear queen T Weald making paintings. They wanted to show Rhododendron ponticum, and her prince consort. The heathy commons with their clumps of pine the beauty of nature in great detail and used Let’s Japanese Knotweed and remind one of Scotland too. And of course, the pine-scented air is so healthy intense, glowing colour. One of the group, have a Himalayan Balsam have and will cure your consumption. Look forward to seeing you soon. William Holman Hunt, made a painting of sheep butcher’s! escaped from gardens into the on a cliff in . It is called wild. They are able to spread Your loving sister, “Our English Coasts” and now hangs in Tate rapidly and smother native Britain, London. vegetation and wildlife. Agatha Another group of High Weald artists was the Cranbrook Colony. They painted scenes of rural ictorians and Edwardians enjoyed the has a scented garden in the everyday life, but made things look rosier and English countryside and nature, but new Italian style, a Victorian kitchen garden and more romantic than they really were. Their things were happening. Plant explorers restored Victorian glasshouse. paintings were popular with wealthy factory were bringing back exciting new owners in the Midlands. V Great Dixter, a garden created in Edwardian times specimens from other continents. Landscape artists were painting romantic far off lands. Gardeners were inspired by this new mood. You can visit many grand gardens begun by Victorians. Find out where at: Many gardens in the High Weald today were www.highweald.org/explore/attractions Cycle, walk or ride along disused railway lines built by the Victorians at: begun in Victorian or Edwardian times and reflect www.eastsussex.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/countryside/ these ideas. Some of these can be visited. Tunbridge walks/cuckootrail/default.htm Wells East Grinstead Marle www.eastsussex.gov.uk/leisureandtourism/countryside/ Standen Place Cranbrook Tenterden High walks/forestway/default.htm Leonardslee was planted with shrubs like Horsham Beeches Wakehurst Exhibits at: camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias and set Place Cranbrook Museum; Eden Valley Museum; Hastings Old Town Great Haywards Dixter Hall Museum; Tenterden Museum; Tunbridge Wells Museum; out in the style of a landscape painting. The Heath Heathfield Rye Rye Castle Museum; Yesterday’s World, Battle Victorian owner imagined it to be like the More online at: Hastings Himalayas. High Beeches was planted with new Country www.highweald.org/Edward – video of a Victorian garden owner Great Dixter Archive Great Gardens specimens from around the world. Marle Place Hastings Park www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/collections/ browse_collections/art/cranbrook

1841 Balcombe Viaduct built over the River Ouse on the 1851 Sussex trugs became 1866 Railway line opened 1870s William Robinson of 1878 Hop production 1885 Board of Conservators set up 1902 Batemans bought by High Weald London-Brighton Railway Line using 11 million bricks popular after being shown at between East Grinstead Gravetye introduced idea of reached a peak in the area to manage Ashdown Forest Rudyard Kipling the Great Exhibition and Tunbridge Wells wild gardening 1850 EVENTS 1837 1840 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 Queen Victoria 1850 First garden 1851 Great Exhibition 1859 On the Origin of Species 1866 Dr Barnardo opened 1876 telephone invented Bicycles became popular 1901 Queen Victoria came to the throne gnome brought Crystal Palace, Hyde Park by Charles Darwin published home for orphans in London by Alexander Bell for everyday transport died, Edward VII World to England became king Early 20th century THE WARTIME DIARY OF MARTIN PARKER, EVACUEE before my eyes, then muddied faces appeared strategies to outmanoeuvre beneath them. I thought Hitler had sent his invading troops. They are Friday 7 June 1940 paratroopers for us! Then I heard a familiar voice: going to have a practice Mrs T is joining a cookery school to learn how to “Might have known YOU’D get in on the act Martin next Saturday where they make the most of what food we’ve got. Meat, Parker”. will ambush another platoon butter, bacon and sugar are rationed already, but who will pretend to be Nazis. A pillbox everyone says lots more food is going to be in short Peering out from between bits of moss and bracken supply soon. Mrs T goes to lectures about wartime I recognized the face of Mr Thompson who was Friday 14 June 1940 stuff and is in the WI. They’ve got a jam centre at dressed up like a bush. The other blokes with him Mr T is going to take us to see some dragon’s Forest Row. Everybody round here has to grow (all disguised as bushes) had a good laugh. One of teeth. They are concrete things that have just been loads of fruit and the jam ladies are going to make them was Jimmy’s Uncle Bert, another was our next put up near here to stop enemy tanks in their jam for everyone. They are even making it from door neighbour. Turns out they’ve all joined the tracks. Mr T knows the places where they are carrots, not sure how that will taste. Me and my Local Defence Volunteers and were building pillboxes, overlooking river valleys and on mates are planning to go fruit picking in the on “manoeuvres”. the coast. They are half-buried, concrete or brick hedgerows in September too. Yummy, can’t wait! rooms with slits for a soldier to look out of for anything suspicious. Mr T gave me some cards of the wildlife of Ashdown Forest. Funny, I used to think the countryside would be boring, but it’s jolly interesting really. Monday 3rd June 1940 I’ve been living in Nutley nearly six months now, getting used to things around here. School’s all Me, Martin Parker right, not as big as St Mary’s, our old school in Lewisham. Well I s’pose anywhere would be a squash: there’s us lot from St Mary’s as well as some Mr T explained that the forest is a good place to OPERATION DANDELION older kids from a school in Southwark. AND all the practise special exercises in case Hitler really does Me and Jimmy and the gang are local children. They’re not half bad. Things looked a turn up. Jim had fallen into a slit trench, which is a helping the war effort. We’re always bit dodgy at first, a few fights between the boys, narrow pit dug in the ground where a soldier can on the look-out for anything suspicious and some of the girls acted a bit soppy, but now hide to protect himself and fire at the enemy. There and we’ve got a jolly good way of most of us get on. Saturday 8 June 1940 are the remains of bigger trenches in the forest too. sending secret messages to one another. You get a dandelion and use the gooey My pal Jimmy (one of the Nutley mob) came round They were dug by soldiers in the First World War to juice to make marks on paper. Then you When we first arrived everyone got taken to this with Billy and John from St Mary’s (known them practise for when they would have to fight in France make it into a paper aeroplane and fly posh woman’s house. Well, it wasn’t actually her since we were nippers). Went for a kickabout in the and Belgium. it to another gang member.The marks are house (I bet they thought we’d scuff the floor with forest, but on the way met a bunch of kids we know a secret code. A triangle means “Meet me our boots or pinch the silver or something) it was a so ended up playing battles till it was almost dark. Near here there’s a real army camp with lots of at three o’clock”, a square is “See you socking great barn. Blimey it was about the size of You have to get indoors before the black-out or Canadian soldiers. But Mr T’s lot are really important after dinner”... Well I won’t tell you St Paul’s cathedral! So there was us lot from both you’ll most likely get run over or fall down a hole or as well, because they have to keep watch all the everything or it won’t be a secret. But schools, AND our teachers, all being sized up by something. We’re not allowed to show a light time, especially during the night. They look out for the best bit is that it just looks like plain paper, because the dandelion juice the ladies from the village. Thought they were because enemy planes will see it and bomb us. aliens hiding in places like sheds or barns or is invisible until it dries. Why don’t going to be snooty, but they were quite kind really. hedgerows, and report anything unusual. He told us you try it? Bit bossy though. We all had to have baths. Mon 10 June 1940 they have to have pretend battles and learn After school we all met up on the battlefield of Me and my sister Eileen got taken to Mr and Mrs Ashdown Forest for another glorious victory. Jimmy The area’s rivers, the Medway, Ouse and Rother, formed natural Thompson’s house. We were lucky, they don’t mind and I were moving along behind gorse bushes defence lines; its open heaths were valued training grounds. what we do (as long as it’s safe) and the grub’s trying to get close enough to take a pot shot at Cliff Explore heaths at: good. Could do with a bit more, but (one of the enemy) with Jim’s catapult. Cliff was www.highweald.org/leechpoolandowlbeechwoods Medway www.highweald.org/buchancountrypark who couldn’t? They are quite old skulking about in a clump of pine trees thinking he www.highweald.org/broadwaterwarren (Mrs T is 40 and Mr T 42). Mr was camouflaged, but his red jumper (knitted by his www.highweald.org/ashdownforest www.highweald.org/hastingscountypark T is in a reserved gran) made him an easy target. Just as we started Rother www.highweald.org/cinderhillwood occupation, so he doesn’t to run for the next base, Jim let out a yell. I turned Nutley Exhibits at:

have to go and fight in the round to tell him to shut his cakehole, but he’d Ouse Battle Museum; East Grinstead Museum; Eden Valley Museum; war. He does important vanished! Then I saw him down a sort of gulley in a Hastings Old Town Hall Museum; Yesterday’s World, Battle work on a farm near pile of old dead leaves. Before I could call him a Second World War defence structures More online at: Rivers www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/history/monuments.php here, growing food for twit and help him up, the ground started to move. www.ashdownforest.org/wild/birds-n-beasts.php the country. Mounds of leaves and twigs seemed to rise up

1907-1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of 1919 Forestry Commission established 1926 Winnie the Pooh By 1935 almost all hop farms High Weald Sherlock Holmes, lived in Crowborough and large scale conifer planting began published around Bodiam were owned to appear across the area by the Guinness Brewery EVENTS 1910 1920 1930 1940 1945 1910 George V 1914 Start of First 1918 End of First 1922 Tomb of Tutankhamun 1928 Women over 21 1928 Mickey Mouse 1930 First football 1932 Empire State 1939 Start of Second 1945 End of Second became king World War World War discovered at Luxor allowed to vote in UK created by Walt Disney World Cup held in Building, New York, World War World War World Uruguay opened Late 20th century to the future Tig Look! Those are the rocks where we My name is Anna. My the past and brought back sheltered on Stone Age grandad has a time-mobile! It some of the people from this hunting expeditions. Ned Still standing after all s takes you anywhere in time you book to see what they thought Anna those thousands of want to go. We flew into of the High Weald today. rka Cluc years and still being pa tu z k S s O n Ma in Pa used. But what are they ro n rt rk I Tig dwin a e ove ath E r doing with those ropes? Dr r Ag a M

Iron Man That’s one of the high places from where Ned In my time – the 16th century – there was we would look out for invaders and hold our special worry over the woodland, people thought it would celebrations. all be used up for fuel and building. I’ve heard that the High Weald is the most wooded place in Agatha We Victorians had rather elegant tea- England and that more than half is ancient parties on the top of some of those rocks. Such fun! woodland. I am so glad you haven’t lost it. Edwin All this was fields when I was a boy in the believed that was a good thing because all our Anna Today people enjoy climbing, or just visiting Middle Ages. And do you know, it still IS! I cut crops would grow perfectly. Anna It is a brilliant habitat for a variety of insects, rocks. The High Weald’s sandstone outcrops are some of those very fields from the woodland plants, birds and animals, especially if it has deep, really special and they’re covered with many myself, I recognise their shapes. It was really hard Martin P. Mr T said that in the Second World War dark, damp places and open sunlit rides too. mosses, lichens and ferns. Some of them are rare. work chopping down all those trees! everyone had to produce as much food as they could. Marshy areas were drained so crops could be Sparkatus The sight of Grandad I’m afraid that when I was farming in the grown. No-one realised it would be at the expense those wooded gills takes mid 20th century we filled in ponds and cut down of wildlife. me back to when I was hedgerows and shaws to make more room to grow making charcoal for the crops. We thought it was the way to go. We had all Grandad Now I know that woodlands, hayfields, Roman ironworks. Brings this new technology like combine harvesters to help grassy places and hedgerows are important me out in a sweat just to us produce food more efficiently. We stopped using habitats for wild plants, birds and animals. And think of it! I’ve just had a horses so we didn’t make hay anymore. Scientists most insects aren’t harmful to crops, in fact some, look at Beauport Park invented pesticides and fertilisers and everyone like bumble bees, are actually beneficial. where the bloomery was. It’s covered with funny little houses on wheels. Must be some kind of Drover In Saxon times I would take my pigs to feed glorified chariots I suppose. in the woodlands along some of these deep sunken lanes and footpaths. Lots of them look almost the Anna They’re caravans where people stay to have a same today as they did back then – if I look hard holiday and enjoy the countryside. enough I feel I might see my own footprints. Some of the bigger roads are rather scary though! Sparkatus Well I’m glad they enjoy it. And I’ve noticed they use charcoal to cook with outdoors. Today’s farmers are doing what they can to conserve the landscape and manage their land Anna Yes, they are called barbecues. Charcoal is for wildlife as well as for agriculture. Other still made in High Weald woodlands. And timber is people who work or live in the countryside, or still a local product. use it for pleasure, can all help to conserve it too. The High Weald Joint Advisory Committee Oz In the Middle Ages I drank wine imported from can give helpful advice on how to care for this Gascony. Now I hear wine is produced unique and distinctive landscape. in the High Weald. Must try some before I go back. Lucky your High Weald AONB Unit Grandad’s driving! Woodland Enterprise Centre It’s like I said years Hastings Road, Flimwell ago: we have everything we need TN5 7PR here in the High Weald. We must 01580 879500 make sure we look after it, then www.highweald.org it will look after US!

1946 Herstmonceux became the 1958 The new Gatwick 1966 Beeching axed many 1970s Major reservoirs at 1983 High Weald 1987 Great Storm – 50 million trees 2000 Millennium Seedbank opened High Weald home of the Royal Observatory Airport officially opened local railway lines Bewl and Ardingly built recognised as nationally blown down in the South East at Wakehurst Place important landscape EVENTS 1945 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2012 1948 Gandhi 1952 Elizabeth II 1955 The first 1961 Yuri Gagarin first 1969 First humans on 1973 Britain joined 1977 First video 1985 First CD Rom 1990 World wide 1995 First DVD 2012 Olympic Games assassinated became queen Disneyland in California man in space moon in Apollo 11 the European game console web invented held in London World Community Historical Happenings IN THE HIGH WEALD

MIDDLE AGES • TUDORS • STUARTS • GEORGIANS

VICTORIANS EARLY 20TH CENTURY The cover of this book shows a changing view of the High Weald as it might have appeared through time. In what ways do you think the landscape has changed over the last 10,000 years?

Historical content from a variety of sources, in particular from information collated by the Weald Forest Ridge Historic Environment Awareness Project and The Kent and Sussex Weald by Peter Brandon. Front and back cover illustrations by Alan Marshall. Written, designed and illustrated by Angel Design www.angeldesign.org.uk

Every effort has been made to ensure the information contained in this publication is accurate. However, the publishers can accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions.

LATE 20TH CENTURY

Working together to care for one of England’s finest landscapes