Two of the most popular walks, revised and updated for 2022. Book early.
Through Trees and Time – a magical history tour explaining our local landscape
guided by Peter Miles
Friday 13th, Sunday 22nd and Sunday 29th May 2022
‘Hornbeams, Hairstreaks & Hawkbits’: Landscape restoration in action
guided by James Fraser
Wednesday 22nd and Sunday 26th June 2022
If you have ever driven down a rural land in other countries in Europe, you may have been astonished by the abundance of wildflowers relative to the UK, and wondered why.
The answer is that in this country in the last 50 years or so we have become accustomed to mown grass being seen as ‘tidy’ even in the depths of the countryside.
Local councils mow verges along our roads up to six times a year in a vain and expensive effort to keep the grass looking ‘well-managed’.
Decline in biodiversity
As many of you will know the UK is suffering from a dramatic decline in biodiversity.
Some bird species have declined by more than 90 per cent since 1970, we have lost 97 per cent of our lowland wildflower meadows, we may be facing ‘insectinction’ with the potential extinction of 41 per cent of the world’s insect species, and 76 per cent of the UK’s species of butterflies are in severe decline.
The causes of this are many and varied, but the intensification of agriculture and the urbanisation of the countryside are the two most significant factors.
Verges: the last refuge
Countryside verges are often the last refuge for the wildflowers and biodiversity that is no longer found on farmland.
There are 313,000 miles of rural road in the UK, with a total verge area larger than the remaining lowland species-rich meadows.
However, mowing these verges during the growing season destroys this habitat, leaving a sterile monoculture.
Our rural lanes in this part of the High Weald are often ancient routeways that have followed the same path for millennia, with an amazing variety of wildlife on them.
Our survey of Kent Lane verges found 119 species of wildflower.
There are 501 species of plant in our tetrad* in Mountfield and more than 85 in just one field at Banks Farm.
More than 160 species of birds have been spotted locally including many that are endangered.
Therefore, like many local residents, I was horrified to see East Sussex County Council (ESCC) mow down the cow parsley in full glorious bloom along Kent Lane in May last year.
During the last decade the charity Plantlife has been campaigning to change this practice.
Last year it published a set of management guidelines which have been adopted by many local authorities and the Department of Transport.
County councils have a legal duty to conserve biodiversity including restoring or enhancing habitats.
Sadly, despite this and warm words on its website about the importance of managing verges for wildlife, ESCC has stubbornly refused to improve its verge management and bring it into line with its legal duties.
In the meantime, the Darwell Area Conservation Society (DACS) – working with Mountfield and Brightling Parish Councils – has applied for the whole of Kent Lane, Mountfield Lane and Church Road to be a ‘wildlife verge’ where ESCC would agree to stop cutting the verges in the summer months.
Willingford Lane and one side of Long Reach, Brightling, are already wildlife verges.
In addition, we recently received the good news that, after a lot of local pressure, ESCC has agreed to run a trial in Mountfield and 11 other parishes whereby they cut all the verges only once per year after the growing season, except where there is a specific safety concern, for example at junctions, which will get an additional cut in May.
If this pilot is successful they will roll it out to the whole county in 2022.
We very much hope this will result in a gradual recovery of biodiversity along the lane and we can convince ESCC that the trial has been a success.
DACS biodiversity audit
As part of that we are launching a biodiversity audit for this area – DACS would love to receive reports from you (via email to SaveDarwell@gmail.com) of sightings of any interesting wildflowers, birds, insects and so on.
Not just along the lane but in the whole of Mountfield and Brightling parishes.
We will report back in due course.
*A tetrad is four square kilometres or 2 km x 2 km.The whole country has been divided up into these and they are used by ecologists when they count species distribution.The boundaries are shown as blue squares on an OS map.
So, what about Dallington and Netherfield? Are there any readers in those parishes who would be interested in mobilising locally in any way? If so, please contact DACS.
February 2021 The Messenger
The High Weald AONB Partnership, including Rother District Counsil and 14 other local planning authorities, has launched a Design Guide for new housing development in the High Weald.
According to the AONB Unit:
Packed with real-life examples and high-quality images, the guide is designed to inspire higher-quality design that reflects the special character of the High Weald landscape and is embedded with a true ‘sense of place’, without stifling innovation and creativity.
It will also help ensure that new housing development meets the National Planning Policy Framework for well-designed places and the conservation and enhancement of the AONB.
Peter Miles, chairman of DACS, said
Although it is not mainly concerned with the sort of open countryside we have, it will be of enormous interest and value to villages facing housing expansion.
For the Darwell area, it will be useful for any future affordable housing schemes on rural exception sites.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing from our point of view is that it was largely written by Diane Russell who is the Conservation and Design Officer for Rother.
The Sow Track
In April 2014, having added a certain amount of basic research to what I already know out of personal enthusiasm, I felt bold enough to lead the first two of these walks exclusively for DACS members. Since then, the walk has been thrown open to all and sundry. It developed, the discoveries multiplied, my knowledge of the subject grew, the weathers included cruel winds, sunburnt noses, snowflakes, unrelenting rain and worse, but above all, with very few exceptions, the walks produced wonderful company. And I remain in touch with so many of those walkers as we grapevine other events and discoveries. My final walk was with a very responsive and appreciative bunch — a suitable way to round the series off.
The walks have given DACS funds and new members to help when we need to fight for this special part of the AONB. They have also made significant and rewarding contributions to the upkeep of All Saints Church, Mountfield and the churches of Netherfield and Brightling Parishes. Above all, I have shown about 200 walkers some of the clues to why our landscape looks as it does and why it is important to fight for it.
Some 2016 walkers, pre-firing squad
The main purpose of the walk has always been to explain why our local High Weald landscape looks as it does. It was wide-ranging and included woodland archæology such as medieval hedgebanks, historical earthworks such as The Castle, possible evidence of the mid-14thC Black Death, industrial remains from throughout the last two millennia such as quarrying and iron smelting, and woodland industry in the coppicing, sawpits, charcoal platforms. An important feature was the use of botanical clues — including a rare plant population (Butcher’s broom) and an even rarer tree (Wild service tree), foraging (with recipes), and more — to hammer home the importance of this landscape. Another underlying theme was the network of old roads across the Weald including the old Sow Track from Penhurst’s Tudor furnace to Robertsbridge Forge.
Peter holding a very small hedge
I should like to record here my gratitude to Lucinda and Simon of Mountfield Court Estate (“Egerton’s”)m and to British Gypsum for allowing us privileged access to their land off any public rights of way. Above all, I am grateful to all the walkers who have stood and been so enthusiastic and responsive despite being talked at in whatever weather conditions applied.
Almost all my walkers were receptive and appreciative and got the message. The new 1918 Romano-British (?) discoveries were a hit. The early medieval date for hedgebanks, the age of hedge and coppice stools, the din and fury of the local Black Country and the old road systems all fascinated. And the butcher’s broom and the chequer tree wove their spells. The main showstoppers were… The Castle. Some were on their third year running but they still stopped and exclaimed in wonder as the moat plunged before their feet. And the medieval pocket lighter.
Medieval pocket lighter and a post medieval phone camera
My final walk in 2018 was my 21st. I haven’t worked it out in detail but I reckon the walks have put about 200 walkers through the woods. That’s about 200 people who understand better what they see, what features are to be valued, what to fight for, and how to fight for it. “The AONB” is not a convenient term to be wheeled out at the convenience of the wheeler; it has real and recognisable significance.
A muddy puddle, circa 1550
There is no other landscape in England with such a high concentration of designated ancient woodland as the eastern High Weald. It has the most extraordinary extent of survival of the post-periglacial recolonisation. It has been claimed that Brightling is the most wooded parish in England but it must be a close thing with Dallington and Mountfield. Within that, the local area of the Weald has a historical identity which is unique from either that of either the Jutes of Kent to ye north and east, or the South Saxons to the west. And then etched into all that, you have one of the most remarkable and complete medieval landscapes in Europe.
Sermon on the mount
Perhaps the Darwell Area ought to be a World Heritage Site like Stonehenge and we should be campaigning to tunnel the A21 under it…
Dear Members and Friends
First of all, belated good wishes for 2018. We are beginning to build a programme of events for later in the year but I just wanted to alert you to the following forthcoming publication and pre-publication offer on a brand new Sussex flora as I know many of you are keen amateur botanists. Many thanks to DACS member Ann Price from Dallington for alerting me to this. Just be aware that I have cut it fine on the deadline for the offer so, if interested, do not delay. Think of it as Valentine’s Day present, to yourself if necessary.
This is a major publishing event: the first full county flora since A. H. Wolley-Dod’s Flora of Sussex published in 1937. The new The Flora of Sussex, compiled by the Sussex Botanical Recording Society, is a very big book — about an inch taller and wider than a copy of Country Life and a mere 544 pages of full colour — with a suitably big price and pre-publication offer.
Hardback 325 x 252 mm 544pp Full colour
Normal RRP £48.50 + £10.00 p&p
Pre-pubication offer £35.00 + £10.00 p&p (Offer ends 17 February)
To order by cheque/money order: £45.00 per copy, payable to “Pisces Publications, 36 Kingfisher Court, Hambridge Road, Newbury, RG14 5SJ
Order online by credit/debit card: £45.00 per copy,
Enquiries:
www.naturebureau.co.uk/
tel: 01635 550 380,
email: pisces@naturebureau.co.uk
If you do order, please let me know so we can gauge interest levels for the future. Thank you.
Some of you may wonder why we haven’t teamed up with Rother Books, our cracking little local bookshop on Battle High Street. We shall be working with Rother Books this year on other projects but in this case the publishers are not able to give any trade margin so it wasn’t to be. If you haven’t discovered Rother Books yet, do go and introduce yourself to Ian Cawley. As well as a terrific general stock, he has strong history and natural history sections. I am half way through the amazing The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben that I bought there for my holiday reading (I’m in a farmhouse on Dartmoor as I write).
If you come across anything — walks, talks, books, shows — that you think might be of interest to DACS members, do let me know so I can share it.
Best wishes
Peter
Chairman, DACS
Sunday 23 April, Sunday 30 April and Sunday 7 May 2017
Start: 9.45 am Distance/Time: Only 2 miles, just over 3 hours
© Simon Carey reproduced under Creative Commons Licence
Terrain: Easy but brambles and mud
Start: Mountfield Village Hall.
Clothes: Dress for all weathers, and for standing as well as walking.
Facilities: Free parking. Loos available at start/finish.
Following the success of this walk the last thre years, Peter Miles will be repeating it on three dates in 2017. The walk is based in a small area of Mountfield not normally accessible to the public and covers features ranging from pre-1250 to the 20thC.
The main purpose of the walk is to explain how and why our High Weald landscape looks as it does. To this end, the walk will cover details such as the network of old roads and tracks, woodland archæology (in particular, the pattern of woodland and clearance), mediæval earthworks (wood banks and a massive 13thC moated site), other industrial remains (mine pits, quarries, kilns), historic evidence of woodland crafts (coppicing, sawpits, charcoal platforms), plus local botany including one very rare plant population and an even rarer tree, foraging (with recipes), and more. Above all, the emphasis will be on fun.
One underlying theme of the walk is the network of old roads across the local High Weald including the old Sow Trail (Sow Lane) through the woods and fields from Panningridge Furnace in Penhurst to the Sidney ironworks in Robertsbridge.
Well behaved dogs on leads welcome. Not really geared for children, even if on leads. The cost is £8.00 per person on the day with all proceeds going to the fabric of the early Norman gem of All Saints, Mountfield. Numbers are limited, so first come, first served…
To book, or for more details, contact Peter on
pandvmiles2@gmail.com or 01580 880 614.
Walk sponsored by Darwell Area Conservation Society for All Saints Church, Mountfield.
The forge pond at Mountfield irnoworks
Mountfield’s Tudor Ironworks: a typical, 16th century Wealden furnace and forge
A talk by Peter Miles for The Darwell Area Conservation Society
Repeated by popular demand. Two further schedulings of the talk first given at the Robertsbridge and District Archæological Society on Friday 13th January 2017.
Friday 31 March 2017 at 7:30pm in Mountfield Village Hall. Free to DACS members; non-members suggested contribution of £3.00 to DACS funds
Wednesday 2 April 2017 at a meeting of Etchingham Historical society at 7:45 pm in Hurst Green Village Hall.
The site of Mountfield’s Tudor ironworks is extraordinary for a number of reasons: not least, because its existence is almost entirely unknown locally, despite it being freely visible from a popular public right of way. It is also largely unaffected by modern development, is entirely unexcavated, and still has a lot of fascinating visible remains, even after 450 years — if you know what you are looking for.
The talk will start with a brief background to Wealden iron production and then, using a sequence of slides, provide a virtual site to the visit and its remains. It will consider the Mountfield site in the wider context of the Weald and consider its impact on the local landscape before ending by meeting a couple of characters who worked there.
Those attending the talk will also be invited to a simple guided tour of the site, over a couple of subsequent weekends. The walk is an easy stroll through lovely countryside — and through layers of history stretching from the earliest medieval age to recent times. Full details on the night.
The Moth Breakfast (Sunday 3rd July, 2016) was a great success and a big hit with everyone who went. A great spread of tea/coffee, orange juice, freshly barbecued bacon rolls, melon chunks, breakfast muffins, muesli bars had been laid out al fresco on the tables on the grass in front of the farmhouse. As the morning went on, the breakfastwas attacked con gusto.
The weather was kind with plenty of sunshine and no wind to speak of. The view over the Resservoir to Moutfield Court was at its best. With a muffin or roll in one hand and a cuppa in the other, it really did seem the best place to be on a summer Sunday morning. The punters also enjoyed the backdrop of the farmhouse, some explored the oast barn, and those with their best days behind them ventured up The Ladder to see the old hop press.
Our moth-ers were Katie Walker and Caroline Moore. They had set the trap the previous evening and decanted the results first thing in the morning ready for the ID session. An example of each moth was then transferred to a good, old-fashioned jam jar to be oohed and aahed over and peered at with either naked eye or magnifying glass. Everyone was deeply impressed and after the main ID session, there were still people to be seen sitting on a bench peering happily into a jam jar. It certainly dispelled the worry some had in advance that when you had seen one moth… Photographs of the moths caught can be seen below. The pictures do tend reinforce the seen-one-seen-em-all view but they were all much more exciting face to face, particularly the swallow-tailed, the bramble shoot, the clouded border, flame and the giant poplar hawk moth.
The following are all pictures of the actual moths found on the day (except for the last few).
Agapeta hamana and Swallow-tailed Moth
Blastobasis lacticolella
Bramble-shoot Moth
Buff Ermine
Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clouded Border
Common Wainscot
Coronet
Diamond-back Moth
Eucosma
Eudonia lacustrata
Flame
Heart and Dart
Large Yellow Underwing
Light Arches
Mottled Beauty
Poplar Grey
Poplar Hawkmoth
Riband Wave
Scoparia ambigualis
Small Mottled Willow
Smoky Wainscot
Uncertain
Variegated Golden Tortrix
Barred Straw (library picture)
Buff Arches (library icture)
Notocelia rosaecolona (libary picture
Sunday April 24th, May 1st or May 8th 2016
Start: 9.45 am Distance/Time: Only 2 miles, just over 3 hours
© Simon Carey reproduced under Creative Commons Licence
Terrain: Easy but brambles and mud
Start: Mountfield Village Hall.
Clothes: Dress for all weathers, and for standing as well as walking.
Facilities: Free parking. Loos available at start/finish.
Following the success of this walk the last two years, Peter Miles will be repeating it on three dates for the last time this year. The walk is based in a small area of Mountfield not normally accessible to the public and covers features ranging from pre-1250 to the 20thC.
The main purpose of the walk is to explain how and why our High Weald landscape looks as it does. To this end, the walk will cover details such as the network of old roads and tracks, woodland archæology (in particular, the pattern of woodland and clearance), mediæval earthworks (wood banks and a massive 13thC moated site), other industrial remains (mine pits, quarries, kilns), historic evidence of woodland crafts (coppicing, sawpits, charcoal platforms), plus local botany including one very rare plant population and an even rarer tree, foraging (with recipes), and more. Above all, the emphasis will be on fun.
One underlying theme of the walk is the network of old roads across the local High Weald including the old Sow Trail (Sow Lane) through the woods and fields from Panningridge Furnace in Penhurst to the Sidney ironworks in Robertsbridge.
Well behaved dogs on leads welcome. Not really geared for children, even if on leads. The cost is £8.00 per person on the day with all proceeds going to the fabric of the early Norman gem of All Saints, Mountfield. Numbers are limited, so first come, first served…
To book, or for more details, contact Peter on
pandvmiles2@gmail.com or 01580 880 614.
Walk sponsored by Darwell Area Conservation Society for All Saints Church, Mountfield.
The walks on 3rd and 6th June 2015 are now 100% fully booked. It may be possible to arrange further walks in the future – please respond to the invitation if you would like to be put on the waiting list.
Darwell Area Conservation Society welcomes donations to further its work. Click the button below to donate by credit card, debit card, or PayPal.
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