Flora of Ashdown Forest - Botanical Society of the British Isles

THE HABITATS OF ASH DOWN FOREST3HistoryAshdown Forest has a long and well-documented history. Glyn & Prendergast (1995) give a readable summary buta few significant dates are briefly mentioned here,The Forest appears to have been occupied initially by nomadic hunter-gatherers and seasonal farmers, thensettled permanently, Amongst the earliest records of human activity found are a Stone Age axe about 100,000years old, and flint flakes have been found in many sites, usually on hillsides. There are also Bronze Age, Iron Ageand Roman remains.The Forest was 'empaJed' in about 1300 by Edward I, enclosing an area of some 14,000 acres, and thosethat farmed the land at that time became 'tenants by custom', In 1372 the deer forest was granted to John ofGaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and became known as Lancaster Great Park. During the Civil War, the Forest was putup as surety against army wages, the deer were wiped out and the pale destroyed. At the Restoration in 1660 theForest was granted to the Earl of Dorset. In 1693, a Duchy Decree allowed half of the Forest to be enclosed andsold off, mainly to a rabbit farmer, hence the name 'warren' which is still used for many Forest areas today (forexample, Broadstone Warren and Hindleap Warren). 1717 brought the end of the iron industry which had thrivedin the area since before Roman times.In 1885, the first Ashdown Forest Act gave power to the Board of Conservators to regulate land use,representing the interests of the owner and the customary tenants or 'commoners'. The most recent Act in 1974set up the Forest management as we know it today. It gave the public free access on foot to the whole area,established the Bye-laws, described the constitution of the Board of Conservators and funding of the management.in 1988, the Forest was bought by East Sussex County Council with help from a public appeal.Throughout the history of the Forest the activities of the Commoners have produced the mosaic of habitatspresent today in which our plants grow. Grazing domestic animals, cutting fuel, bedding and thatching materialand controlled burning have created and maintained the heathlands. The recent decline in Forest 'farming' due tothe changing social position of the Commoners and the increase in road traffic which prevents free grazing, haveallowed the massive spread of scrub and secondary woodland. This is now the major factor causing change to theflora of the Forest.Geology and soilsThe geology and soils are important in providing the substrate that the plants grow in, and are one of the majorfactors determining plant distribution at our local scale. The geology has little direct effect on the plants as it isoverlain by soils which are largely silty and compacted resulting in poor drainage.Ashdown Forest occupies the northern sandstone ridge in the High Weald. It is mainly underlain by theAshdown Beds, a relalively re::;i::;tant mixture of interbedded sandstones, silts, sands and clays. Around the edgesthere are also beds of Wadhurst Clay, consisting of mudstones and shales with some shelly limestones, andTunbridge Wells Sandstone, composed of silts and silty sandstone. These strata were laid down in shallow waterand were uplifted about 65 million years ago at the same time as the Alps, and have subsequently been eroded toproduce the topography and land form that we see today. There are also superficial alluvium deposits in thevalleys which mask the underlying geology. Full details of the geology and land form can be found in Bristow &Bazley (1972) and Robinson & Williams (1984).Tunbridge Wells Sandstone Wadhurst Clay Ashdown Beds3 --++------Ll-4 5 5Alluvium3 -++--~--""4--4 5The Forest is centred on two main massifs, one around Wych Cross and the other from Camp Hill to Gill's Lap,separated by the lower ground of the Millbrook valley. The land rises from about 50 m along the southern edge to 220m at Black Hill. The north side drains down to the Medway Valley and is predominantly north-facing, quite steep