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View south across the Weald of Kent as seen from the North Downs Way near Detling. The Weald (/ ˈ w iː l d /) is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent.
The High Weald still has about 35,905 hectares (138.63 sq mi) of woodland, including areas of ancient woodland equivalent to about 7% of the stock for all England. [162] When the Anglo Saxon Chronicle was compiled in the 9th century, there was thought to be about 2,700 square miles (700,000 ha) of forest in the Sussex Weald. [156] [157]
The Weald was not the only area of Sussex that was forested in Saxon times—for example, at the western end of Sussex is the Manhood Peninsula, which in the modern era is largely deforested, but the name is probably derived from the Old English maene-wudu meaning "men's wood" or "common wood" indicating that it was once woodland.
Sussex also experienced the most radical and thorough reorganisation of land in England, as the Normans divided the county into five (later six) tracts of lands called rapes. Although Sussex may have been divided into rapes earlier in its history, [2] under the Normans they were clearly administrative and fiscal units. [3]
Rudyard Kipling also wrote two Sussex stories involving fairies, Puck of Pook's Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910) setting them in the Sussex Weald. Harrow Hill near Worthing is the site of a small hillfort and some Neolithic flint mines. According to an old woman who lived on Lee Farm, the hill was the last home of the fairies in England.
Ashdown Forest in the Sussex Weald provided wood to stoke the blast furnaces. The towns of the Weald in Sussex and Kent were well-placed to capitalise on the new demand. Buxted, for instance, sat on the edge of the Ashdown Forest, an ancient demesne covering some 13,000 acres (53 km 2). Few woods matched the oaks of southern England for burning.
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