The Sussex Weald

The Weald is a wooded landscape that stretches across Sussex and Kent, lodged between the North and South Downs in southern England. It is a place of ancient oak trees and woodlands and extensive agricultural land. Like the New Forest it also holds large areas of heathland, some of the rarest habitats in the world. The woodlands of the Low Weald once connected across southern England with the New Forest.

I enjoy exploring the Sussex Weald on foot, photographing its wildlife and habitats which you can see the result of here in the short posts I publish each month.

The natural beauty of the Weald is juxtaposed against its long history of industry and human settlement. It is not a wilderness in the sense of being devoid of human impact, its woods and heaths have been shaped by people. It is separated in landscape terms into the High and Low Weald, with a diverse geology.

The woodlands of the Weald were intact during the time of the Romans (43-410AD) and Anglo-Saxons in Britain. In Anglo-Saxon times (500-1066AD) it was known as the ‘Andredes weald‘.

Today the Weald is protected in principle by three major land designations: The High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the South Downs National Park and the Ashdown Forest Conservancy.

My main focus are St. Leonard’s Forest in Horsham and the valley of the River Rother near Midhurst.